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THE ICE LENS 

A FOUR-ACT PLAY 

on 

COLLEGE MORALS 

(Causes and Consequences) 



BY 

GEORGE FREDERICK GUNDELFINGER 

Ph.B. (Yale 1906) 

Ph.D. (Yale 1909) 

Instructor in Mathematics 

Sheffield Scientific School 

Yale University 



THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS 

114-116 E. 28th Street 

New York 

1913 



THE PLAY PUBLISHED IN THIS 

VOLUME IS COPYRIGHTED AS 

A DRAMATIC COMPOSITION. 1^3^^ 

STAGE AND PLATFORM RIGHTS \)tn n df 

RESERVED. . _ . - 
H/3 



Copyright, November 20, ipu, by 
GEORGE F-'-GCNDELFINGER. 



Copyright, ipij, by 

GEORGE F. GUNDELFINGER. 

All rights reserved 

©GU33260 3 
fc/w 



THE ICE LENS 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/icelensfouractplOOgund 



"To give light to them that sit in dark- 
ness and in the shadow of death, to guide 
our feet into the way of peace." 

—Luke 1. 79. 

"To awake in man and to raise the 
sense of worth, to educate his feeling and 
judgment so that he shall scorn himself for 
a bad action, that is the only aim." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

"If there is ground for public criticism 
of individuals or of an institution, the criti- 
cism should be made in an open and manly 
way." 

— Henry Parks Wright. 
Dean of Yale College, 1884—1909. 



"BRIGHT COLLEGE YEARS." 

LAST VERSE 

Tune — "Watch on the Rhine." 

In after-life, should troubles rise, 

To cloud the blue of sunny sides 

How bright will seem thro' memory's haze 

The happy, golden, by-gone days! 

Oh! Let us strive that ever we 

May let these words our watch-cry be, 

Where'er upon life's sea we sail; 

"For God, for County, and for Yale." 

— Henry Stewart Durand. 



THE 
GHARAG T E R S . 

John Templeton. 

Ernest Metgalf. 

Reginald Buckingham Addder. 

Ghaungey Everit DePyster. 

Ralph Lyon. 

Jefferson Lyon. 

Jeanette Lyon. 

Mrs. Dearborn Hunter. 

Mrs. Lyon. 

Jupiter, a sweep. 

Gusty, a barber. 

Giles, a bill-collector. 

Morris, a butler. 

Two Children. 

Students and Townspeople. 



A G T ON E . 

(The lens is focused.) 

SCENE — The interior of a college fraterni- 
ty dormitory on a Wednesday evening follow- 
ing a home victory in football. 

ACT TWO. 

(The sunlight passes through.) 

SCENE — Same as Act One on the evening of 
the following day. 

ACT THREE. 

(The fire.) 

SCENE — In the Lyon's den — a month or so 
later. 

ACT FOUR. 

(The lens unmelted.) 

SCENE — On the mountain top in the Spring 
of the year. 



ACT ONE 



ACT ONE 

(The lens is focused.) 

The scene shows the interior of a college fraternity 
dormitory on a Wednesday evening after a 
home victory on the football field. The stage 
is divided into two parts — each part presenting 
a picture in deep contrast with the other. 

The larger room on the left is the study of Adder 
and his roommate — DePyster. The prevailing 
atmosphere is that of the ivell-known "stu- 
dent's sanctum" save that the "suspicious" ar- 
ticles have been temporarily stowed away. 
Every square foot of wall space is covered by 
a brilliantly colored pennant, a witty motto, or 
flashy poster. In the foreground, against the 
right wall, stands a couch piled high with pil- 
lows of all descriptions. Directly opposite, on 
the left, is an open fireplace filled with blazing 
logs. A bust of Shakespeare and several lov- 
ing-cups adorn the mantelpiece over the fire. 
An exceptionably comfortable-looking Morris 
chair has been placed invitingly before the 
hearth. A small door on the far side of the 
mantelpiece opens into an adjoining sleeping- 
chamber. A similar door in view on the right 

[15] 



THE ICE LENS 



wall at the far side of the couch gives access to 
a clothes-closet. A pair of larger doors in the 
rear of the room connect with a hallway. To 
the right of these doors, a bookcase filled most- 
ly with magazines; to the left, a graphophone 
with the usual conspicuously large horn. One 
enormous dark blue banner, bearing the in- 
scription For God, For Country, and For Yale 
in white lettering, hangs above the grapho- 
phone and immediately attracts the eye. The 
only window in the room is between this ban- 
ner and the bedroom door; it is rather large and 
offers an unobstructed view of the street. In 
addition to several lights on the walls, a large 
dome hangs in the center of the room directly 
over a flat-top desk on which, among other ar- 
ticles, are a telephone, a large silver picture 
frame and a tobacco jar. A wastebasket stands 
to the right of the desk. There are several fold- 
ing chairs placed here and there for the occa- 
sion — a reception in honor of the football vic- 
tory. 

Noticeably in the foreground, seated on one corner 
of the couch and toying with a pillow, is the 
ever popular Jeanette Lyon surrounded by all 
the young men in the room — some standing, 
some squatting on the floor, and Adder himself 
sitting on the couch beside her. Mrs. Dearborn 
Hunter occupies the Morris chair and is being 
entertained by DePyster who poses between her 



[16] 



THE ICE LENS 



and the fire. Mr. and Mrs. Lyon are also among 
the guests, and there are several other girls 
who, owing to Jeanette's popularity, must con- 
tent themselves with the conversation of the 
chaperons and the older married men. 

Mr. Adder is a handsome, dashing, care-free young 
man of elegant physique with a malicious 
twinkle in his eye. Let it suffice to say that 
DePyster is a typical ass, in looks, in actions, 
in talk, in everything ; he is lost in a gray suit 
many sizes too large, whereas all the other men 
are in formal evening dress. Jeanette Lyon is 
a rather pretty girl exquisitely gowned; she is 
samewhat frivolous but not bold. Mrs. Hunter 
is easily judged from the immodest gown 
ivhich serves to exaggerate her unwieldy di- 
mensions. These personal remarks are added 
to complete the picture. The characters in the 
background may be studied to better advantage 
in the later scenes where they figure more 
prominently. 

The smaller room on the right of the stage is John 
Templeton's retreat. It i's simply but neatly 
furnished. His bed stands against the right 
wall before a white -curtained window. En- 
trance to his room from the hallway is made 
through a door in the left wall. To the right 
of this door, a chiffonier with a mirror and a 
candlestick ; to the left, a bookrack with numer- 

[17] 



THE ICE LENS 



ous volumes. There is a desk in the center of 
the room; a desk chair in front of it, a larger 
lounging chair to the right and a wastebasket 
to the left. There is one electric light on the wall 
between the door and the chiffonier; a gas- 
lamp stands on the desk. As to pictures, they 
are few in number but refined in subject — 
framed prints of classical paintings including 
Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," which hangs over the 
bookrack. The "Ninety-first Psalm" is placed 
at the head of the bed. The absence of glary 
decorations and the emptiness of the ivalls pro- 
duce an air of freedom rather than an atmos- 
phere of poverty. The room all in all suggests 
order, learning, piety and above all a beautiful 
and impressive solitude, which reaches us quite 
perceptibly in spite of the babble and clatter on 
the other side of the wall. 

Templeton, in a lounging robe, sits writing at his 
desk. 



[18] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. HUNTER 

(glancing in the direction of the couch) 
Isn't it nice to be popular like Miss Jeanette? 
All the young men swarm about her like bees around 
a honeysuckle. I held the same position in this town 
when I was a girl. The students used to call me the 
belle charmeuse, and many were the sirens I put to 
mourning entirely without effort and absolutely 
without intention. 

(She sivays her fan languidly.) 
Of course I was some thinner then. 

DePYSTER 
(with his usual affectation) 
Presumably the picket-fence variety of feminini- 
ty had not yet introduced her meager dimensions 
into the realm of fashion. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(with a sigh) 
Dear me. To be popular nowadays, one must be 
painfully slender. Nobody loves the fat woman. 

DePYSTER 

Lament not. There are still some of us who take 
a great fancy to her jolly good nature finding our- 
selves quite indifferent to her corpulent superfluity. 

MRS. HUNTER 

(with elation) 
Oh, Mr. DePyster, you are very kind; I do so 
much appreciate your sympathy. 

[19] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

Forsooth. I see nothing extraordinaire in this 
Miss Lyon. 

MRS. HUNTER 

The reason is obvious — you have more brains 
than the ordinary youth. Darwin tells us that, 
among the Hottentots, obesity in woman is consid- 
ered first in the estimation of her beauty, and the 
Hottentots, as you well know, are a very intellectual 
race. 

DePYSTER 
Yes indeed. Wasn't it frightful how they were 
massacred in Paris on Saint Bartholomew's Day! 

MRS. HUNTER 

What a perfectly wonderful head you must have 
to remember it all! One could scarcely expect you 
to be interested in a girl like Jeanette ; she is so shal- 
low. It is only natural that you seek the more ma- 
ture and learned woman, and if you can arrange 
it I shall be only too glad to have you spend some 
of your long winter evenings with me. You will 
not have to suffer the agony of the ordinary magpie 
who pretends to know so much but hasn't even 
read a single line from the Greek plays of Erysip- 
elas. 

DePYSTER 
I accept your invitation with keen delight. 
fJupiter appears at the rear door in the garb of a 

waiter.) 



[20] 



THE ICE LENS 



JUPITER 
Refreshments am served in dee billiard room. 

DePYSTER 

Let me escort you to the table. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(rising) 
Oh, Mr. DePyster, you are so gallant, 
(DePyster, with Mrs. Hunter hanging on his arm and 
gazing up into his eyes, leads the procession 
into the billiard room. All the other guests fol- 
low with the exception of Jeanette and her ad- 
mirers. They, so deeply enwrapped in wor- 
shipping their idol, have failed to hear the 
dinner-call.) 

JEANETTE 
(rising and finding herself the only girl in the 

room) 
Oh! am I all alone with you men? How extreme- 
ly unladylike! My chaperon needs reprimanding. 

ALL 

(in unison) 
May I take you to dinner, Miss Lyon? 

JEANETTE 
Dear me, it's rather perplexing to decide. Ld 
us settle it this way — I shall accept him who gives 
the best answer to my question. 

ALL 

Let's have it. 

JEANETTE 
Why is it you all give your attention to me alone 



[121 



THE ICE LENS 



when I tell you I would much rather you would give 
it to the other girls? 

ADDER 

(quickly) 

Because you are Lyon. 

(Strains of music float from the billiard room. 
Jeanette takes Adder's arm, and they waltz out 
through the door. The others follow in de- 
feat. 

Templeton, after a while, takes up some loose 
sheets of paper from his desk, and walks 
about the room glancing them over. We see 
his face for the first time, and we see that it 
is strongly moral — the face of a man, young 
in years but mature in character, who has suf- 
fered in secret for his fellowmen, — suffered 
both from a thorough and painful study of 
their conduct and from a restless longing for 
their amelioration. We are not immediately 
fascinated by any quality in him correspond- 
ing to the almost audacious but seemingly ad- 
mirable manner exhibited by Adder, and yet 
there is a certain charm to his Christian per- 
sonality, which gradually grows upon us and 
holds our attention to his every move and ut- 
terance. He returns to his desk, takes up his 
pen, and makes a correction on his manu- 
script. 

The music ceases, and considerable applause comes 
from the direction of the billiard room. In 

[22] 



THE ICE LENS 



the midst of it, Ralph Lyon enters Temple- 
ton's room without knocking. Now that 
he is separated from the crowd we observe 
him more closely. His face, although strong- 
ly reminiscent of fine features, seems to be 
marked indelibly with the stamp of dissipa- 
tion, and yet there is something about it 
which at least suggests the dormant existence 
of a better self. In contrast with the face 
of Templeton, it appears even fiendish at 
times.) 

LYON 
Pardon me. You don't mind my stepping in here 
a moment, do you? 

TEMPLETON 
(laying down his pen and paper) 
Not at all; you are quite welcome indeed. 

LYON 
I am hunting a room free from women. These 
dinners, where they serve one with a lettuce leaf 
between two sheets of bread, and an olive on a tooth- 
pick, are too delicate for me. I came here to get at 
something more substantial. (He removes a flask 
from his hip pocket and offers it to Templeton.; 
Have a taste? 

TEMPLETON 

(politely) 
No, thank you. 

LYON 
(slightly disappointed) 
How's that? 



[23] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 
I don't happen to indulge. 

LYON 

You don't realize what you're missing, young 
man. (He drinks and then smacks his lips.) Great 
stuff that! (He returns the bottle to his pocket, 
glances about the room, and then holds out an open 
cigar case.) Smoke? 

TEMPLETON 
Thank you very much, but I really don't use 
them. Let me offer you a match. (He passes him the 
matchbox on his desk.) 

LYON 

(incredibly) 
No drink! No smoke! What kind of a man are 
you? (He takes a match, strikes it, lights his cigar, 
and sits in the large chair preparing for a comforta- 
ble smoke.) Judging from the Ninety-first Psalm 
over your bed, I should guess you were a Sunday- 
school teacher. 

TEMPLETON 
(sitting in the desk chair) 
Am I so good looking as all that? 

LYON 

How does it come you are not taking part in the 
reception to-night? You're a member of this fra- 
ternity — aren't you? 

TEMPLETON 
I carry its fellow-members — but not its Greek let- 

[24] 



THE ICE LENS 



ters — next to my heart, (then humbly) I am mere- 
ly a proctor here. 

LYON 

Oh, I understand; that is, you are here to con- 
demn the boys if they come in at night with a drink 
or so too many. 

TEMPLETON 

I am here not to condemn them but to save them. 

LYON 

To save them from what? 

TEMPLETON 
From evil. 

LYON 
You call that evil, do you? 

TEMPLETON 

All excess is evil. I notice you say "a drink or 
so too many." 

LYON 

Well, I suppose they find it hard to stop when 
it tastes best. 

TEMPLETON 
Yes; it would be a great thing if we could mas- 
ter restraint. But there are always some poor un- 
fortunate ones who stubbornly refuse to reason. 

LYON 

Fools, eh? 

TEMPLETON 

One could scarcely call them wise men. 



[25] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(fluently) 
Decidedly. To sit down and drink until your 
head goes round as merrily as the good old world 
itself leaving all cares a mile behind — that's wisdom. 
And to have a pal whose capacity is exactly one 
glass more than he actually takes, a pal who is just 
about able to see you home — that's brotherhood. 

TEMPLETON 
A queer kind of brotherhood indeed where we 
associate with a man to share his senselessness rath- 
er than to reform him. This is not the true brother- 
hood of Christianity. 

LYON 

(holding up his hand) 
Don't ring in religion! The separation of the 
real men from the solemn saints is the one great ad- 
vantage of a college fraternity. We can't expect 
our sons to associate with grinds and angels. They 
must have recreation — not study. When we've got 
money we don't need brains ; when we've got money 
and brains, it's selfish as well as foolish to use both. 
So we keep the money and the pleasure, and donate 
to the Poor the exclusive right to brain and work. 

TEMPLETON 
Without work there can be no pleasure — no real 
pleasure — no lasting pleasure, and there is more of 
that in the mere thought that we are doing some 
good for humanity — or even for ourselves — than 
there is in a whole cellar full of the rarest wine. 



[26] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(removing the ashes from his cigar) 
I have a son — Jefferson — who tries to live up to 
that principle. He doesn't drink; he doesn't smoke; 
he turns away from men who do. He walks over 
my money as though it were mud. His one and only 
interest is missionary work. In fact he reminds me 
a lot of you, and I think he's a hell of a man. 

TEMPLETON 

(calmly) 
He is your son. 

LYON 

The Lord only knows he doesn't inherit it from 
me. When I was his age I was next to everything 
worth while. I knew and practiced every known 
pleasure. I was, what my classmates called, a 
"heller." 

TEMPLETON 

How fortunate then that you should be favored 
with such a son. 

LYON 

Fortunate! Ha, he's the laughing stock of the 
town ; his interest in missionary work and that only 
has made him so one-sided he can't walk straight, 
and constant study has reduced his face to the inside 
of an oyster shell. 

TEMPLETON 
And you believe this is due to application and 
learning? 



[27] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 
Yes; deep study is bound to change a man's 
face. 

TEMPLETON 
Bound to improve it. Have you never thought 
that perhaps your son came into the world fated 
with a deformed face and body? Those pleasures 
you had in your youth had to be paid for in some 
way. Nature always squares up her accounts, and 
usually the next generation has to suffer. 

LYON 

Nonsense! That's a footless theory. If Jeffer- 
son took a drink now and then and went out with 
the other fellows on their larks to have his blood 
warmed up, he'd be a different boy. 

TEMPLETON 
He may inherit your appetite; it may develop 
only too soon. 

LYON 

Not too soon for me. 

TEMPLETON 
And suppose he should fall victim to such habits. 
Then what? 

LYON 
Then he will have pleased his fattier. 

TEMPLETON 
Pleasing our parents by merely re-living their 
lives is such a narrow mission — in particular, when 
we are offered a nobler one. 



[28] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 
But he owes it to his father. 

TEMPLETON 
He owes his life — his all — to our Father, and it 
is He whom the son shall please. It is His character 
we should strive to repeat. 

LYON 

(mildly sarcastic) 
Yes ; all that sounds very nice, but it is w T e earth- 
ly parents who are bothered with the child until it 
reaches maturity. 

TEMPLETON 
That is the parental duty. 

LYON 

And the child should repay it. 

TEMPLETON 

Yes; to its own offspring. The world moves 
forward — not backward. 

LYON 

Then what's the use of having children? 

TEMPLETON 
It is not always the parents who wish them. 
Sometimes God sends them when they are not want- 
ed, but they never come without a purpose which 
the parent will realize in time. 

LYON 

A purpose which is of no benefit to the parent. 

TEMPLETON 
Always, but perhaps indirectly. My dear man, 



[29] 



THE ICE LENS 



children are born into the world, and not into fam- 
ilies. This world needs all kinds of men. We have 
to get here some way; our parents are simply the 
medium through which we come. There is no 
choice in the matter — the sinner may beget the 
saint. After all, we are God's children, and as soon 
as we are strong enough to leave the mother's wing 
we should fly out into His heaven and do the work 
for which we have been created. 

LYON 

But think of it! a missionary! 

TEMPLETON 

The noblest ambition of all. 

LYON 

Ambition! I call that a rut. 

TEMPLETON 
They are one and the same thing. We all have 
to do something, and that some thing becomes our 
ambition — our rut. There is a road to salvation and 
a road to ruin — you will find ruts in both of them. 
It is no harm if our wheels get into these ruts ; the 
only question is fc 'Are we on the right road?" 

LYON 

What good is the right road if we stick there 
and rot? 

TEMPLETON 

Beautiful flowers spring out of the mould to il- 
luminate the way for others. 

LYON 

(rising abruptly) 
Hell! You're too damned poetic for me. If we 



[30] 



THE ICE LENS 



should argue all night, I would still uphold that 
Jefferson is not the boy he ought to be, and that's 
why I put him in college. If I should ever offer a 
prayer, it would be that the other boys might lay 
hold on him and turn him into a man. I don't care 
what means they employ to do it. What he needs 
is goodfellowship, wine and — woman. 

TEMPLETON 
And you consider the promotion of these things 
the first purpose of a college? 

LYON 

Decidedly. What should it be? a workhouse? 

TEMPLETON 

A place of learning where we might acquire 
understanding and the higher Christian fellowship 
to prepare ourselves for service to God and His peo- 
ple. 

LYON 

You've got it worse than Jefferson. I thought I 
had him located in a house free from this infernal 
religious influence, but Holy Jerusalem! if here 
ain't St. Peter himself. 

TEMPLETON 
Your son will not be influenced by me. He is 
under the influence of a Power which is more than 
human. Perhaps you will understand me better 
when I say that he has been summoned by the Al- 
mighty Shepherd to rescue a lamb which has strayed 
from His fold. 



[31] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(with a sneer) 

A lamb ! Ha, ha, — you preachers are so damned 

considerate. Why don't you say outright what you 

mean? Instead of a lamb, call me a black sheep 

and be done with it. 

TEMPLETON 
The sheep only appears black from the darkness 
in which it walks. But it shall be cleansed and made 
white again. God has sent you one of those unwel- 
come children for the purpose of saving the soul 
of its own beloved father. That child has not taken 
up its cross in vain, for mark you! that father will 
soon open his eyes to the truth. 

(Ralph Lyon chuckles demoniacally and walks 
away. Before leaving the room he casts a 
scornful glance at Templeton, exhales a cloud 
of smoke from his cigar, and then closes the 
door with a slam. 

Templeton returns calmly to his work on the desk. 

Jeanette Lyon, holding a plate and a napkin, enters 
Adder's room. He follows her likewise pro- 
vided.) 

ADDER 

At last I've got you alone. 

JEANETTE 

(jumping on the desk, spreading the napkin across 
her knee, and nibbling at the food on her plate) 
And it is such a relief too. Dear me ; it's almost 
a bore to be admired by so many. Now there's Mr. 

[32] 



THE ICE LENS 



Brown; he said he was wild about me. Then Mr. 
Miller came along and said he was mad about me. 
And so on during the whole evening: Mr. Taylor 
said he was crazy; Mr. Wallace said he was daffy; 
Mr. Morton said he was dippy; Mr. Le Grand said 
he was simply sick. Now; what in the world are 
you? 

ADDER 
I've passed through all those stages long ago, 
and now I'm dead — dead in love with vou, Jeanettc. 

JEANETTE 
Well, you win the prize. 

ADDER 

What is it? 

JEANETTE 
(passing him her plate) 
My lobster salad. I don't like it. 

ADDER 

(placing both plates on the desk) 
Jeanette, I have never seen you look more beauti- 
ful than you do to-night! 

JEANETTE 
Be more explicit, Reginald. 
(It must be frankly admitted that Jeanette Lyon is 
lovely to look upon. If there is a genuine and 
sensible soul under all her external finery, then, 
in this scene at least, her vainglory likewise 
prevents us from seeing it.) 

ADDER 
Your eyes are like two glittering stars in a celes- 
tial countenance, 



[33] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
Your language is perfectly angelic. Say some 
more — quick. 

ADDER 
Your cheeks are like the crimson glow on a 
woodland rose at sundown. 

JEANETTE 
That's immense. Go on. 

ADDER 

Your voice is like the song of the thrush in the 
early springtime. 

JEANETTE 

Exquisite! Exquisite! and my hair? 

ADDER 
Like golden brown leaves aflame with the mel- 
low sunlight of a dreamy October day. 

JEANETTE 

(clapping her hands) 
Glorious! and my new gown? 

ADDER 

A lacework of dewdrops clinging to the stem 
of a lily. 

JEANETTE 

Wonderful! Magnificent! (She swings herself 
about in ecstasy on the top of the desk, and then 
the expression on her face changes very suddenly.) 
I have sat in the mayonnaise; I know it. (She 
jumps from the desk.) Please examine me. 



[34] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

(standing behind her) 
Oh ! it has ruined your gown. 

JEANETTE 
(turning about on her heel, throwing her arms 
around his neck, and exposing the enormous 
grease spot) 

I don't care as long as you love me. 

ADDER 
(with his arms about her ivaist) 
Jeanette ! 

JEANETTE 

You make me tingle all over with happiness. 

ADDER 
(removing a ring from his finger and placing it on 

hers) 
And here's more of it. 

JEANETTE 

My engagement ring! Oh! isn't it a little dear! 

ADDER 
Dear? What is money to me? You shall have 
everything that money can buy. As I sit at my 
work with your picture before me (He takes up the 
silver frame from the desk.) here in the frame you 
gave me at Christmas time, I plan for the happy 
future I am going to provide for you. We shall 
live for months in the capitols of Europe; we shall 
have our summer villa on the shore of the Mediter- 
ranean; we shall visit Paris every season to renew 
your wardrobe; we shall be the guests of royalty. 



[35] 



THE ICE LENS 



Your name shall head the society column of every 
fashionable paper; other women will look up to 
you in deep envy, while you, smiling with majestic 
scorn and frigid indifference, can ignore them one 
and all. 

JEANETTE 

(repeating her embrace) 
You darling, darling fellow! 

(Mrs. Lyon enters the room. She is attired for her 
carriage, and holds Jeanette's cape over her arm. 
It will not take us long to perceive that she is 
not the woman we might anticipate as the wife 
of Ralph Lyon. On hearing her speak, Jeanette 
and Adder quickly separate.) 

MRS. LYON 
Jeanette dear, I think we will have to be going 
now. 

JEANETTE 

So soon. 

MRS. LYON 
Your father ordered the car for ten o'clock; he 
seems to have forgotten it. Perhaps Mr. Adder will 
find him for us and tell him the car is ready. 

ADDER 
(placing the picture frame on the desk, and then 
leaving the room) 
Gladly, Mrs. Lyon. 

MRS. LYON 
You were ready to leave — were you not, dear? 

[36] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
I am never ready to leave Reginald; he is so 
wonderful. 

MRS. LYON 
Yes, dear; all these men seem wonderful to us 
at first. We women lose our heads over them so 
easily. We should be more careful about allowing 
ourselves to become so intimate with them. 

JEANETTE 
Why this little sermon? 

MRS. LYON 
I chanced to see you in Mr. Adder's arms. 

JEANETTE 
What of that? I am already engaged to him. 

MRS. LYON 

(bewildered) 
Engaged ! 

JEANETTE 

Yes; he gave me the ring to-night. (She holds 
out her hand.) See what a beauty it is. 

MRS. LYON 

(pressing her daughter's hand) 

I do not wish to make you feel unhappy, dear, 

but I believe this affair has ripened too quickly — 

it almost seems as though this ring has been picked 

up by accident in the street. 

JEANETTE 
(withdrawing her hand) 
How absurd you are. 



[37] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 
It is only for your own happiness, Jeanette, that 
I express my opinion. 

JEANETTE 
You needn't bother about it in the least. Father 
and I have planned it all, and he has thoroughly in- 
vestigated the matter of Mr. Adder's character and 
finds it absolutely faultless. 

MRS. LYON 
I am glad to hear it, dear, but I thought a mother, 
with her experience, should stand closer to her 
daughter in a case like this. Girls are so apt to act 
thoughtlessly and mistake some luring disguise for 
true love. I have often wished my mother had been 
living when such things troubled my youthful mind. 

JEANETTE 
Things have changed since then, and anyhow — 
Reginald is so wonderful, so perfectly wonderful. 
(Adder and Lyon enter the door, the latter with his 
hat and gloves. Jeanette rushes forward to 
meet her father, displaying the ring.) 
Look, Dad. The ring! The ring! I know it 
will make you just as happy as I. 

LYON 

(caressing her) 
Happy that my little girl is getting such an ad- 
mirable and manly husband. (He takes Jeanette's 
hand in one of his, and Adder's in the other. Then 
bringing them together he adds the usual:) God 
bless you, my children. 



[38] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 

(trying to conceal a certain sadness) 
Come along, Ralph; they've been holding hands 
all evening. 

(Mrs. Lyon throws the cape gently over Jeanette's 
shoulders, and leaves the room. The others 
follow. The guests are seen nodding their 
"Good byes" in the hallway. Mrs. Hunter, in a 
black velvet cloak, steps into Adder's room with 
DePyster trailing after her like a pet dog.) 

MRS. HUNTER 

I must gaze again upon the spot where first I 
met you; never have I known a more remarkable 
man. 

DePYSTER 

You really mean it, Mrs. Hunter? 

MRS. HUNTER 

Yes, indeed. I was once a student in Phrenology, 
and believe me, Mr. DePyster, I have never seen a 
more nobly shaped head. Your very ears are sym- 
bolic of supernatural intelligence; your mouth is 
expressive of determination, conscientiousness and 
individuality; your nose typifies benevolence, and 
your eyes are filled with the fire of love and passion. 
In fact, vour entire physique is perfection personi- 
fied. 

DePYSTER 

You are the first woman to observe it in me. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Not every one can see it, Mr. DePyster. In order 

[39] 



THE ICE LENS 



to see the great in you, one must forget all other 
men, and so few of us have that power of concen- 
tration. I have acquired it only after years of 
mental labor, and believe me, Mr. DePyster, I can 
think of you and at the same time have nothing on 
my mind. 

DePYSTER 

It has been a great honor to have so marvelous 
a woman at our reception. I hope you have en- 
joyed yourself. 

MRS. HUNTER 

Alas! I never enjoy myself — but I have enjoyed 
you. Do come to see me often. Mr. Hunter will 
probably irritate you just as he does me, but we 
shall arrange it this way: Gall us up on the 'phone. 
If Mr. Hunter answers — well, just say you're the fish- 
man. Then I'll come to the receiver. If I order 
bluefish — that will mean Mr. Hunter is not going 
to the Club. If I order lobster — that's you. Under- 
stand? 

DePYSTER 

Perfectly. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Good night, Mr. — may I call you Chauncey? 

DePYSTER 
'T would be a pleasure. Let me see you to your 
carriage. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Oh, Mr. DePyster, you are so gallant. 

(She offers him her arm, and they strut out of the 



[40] 



THE ICE L E N S 



room. Adder returns. He lights a cigarette, and 
walks up and down the floor finally stopping at 
the desk and taking up the silver picture frame. 
While he is gazing at the picture, Jupiter en- 
ters to gather up the plates and napkins.) 
JUPITER 
(looking over Adder's shoulder) 
She suttanly am a regulaar little queen, Mr. Ad- 
der, — dee most fascinatinest gal at dis here recep- 
tion. 

ADDER 
I know what you're talking for, Jupiter. (He 
reaches into his pocket and hands him a bill.) Here's 
a V for working overtime. 

JUPITER 
Thank yah, sah. Thank yah, sah. 

(Jupiter walks toward the door, and, still looking 
back at Adder, he naturally callides with De- 
Pyster who is just returning.) 
DePYSTER 
Confound you, Jupiter; why don't you watch 
where you're going? You splattered that salad all 
over me — that's a clever mess, you silly ape. 

JUPITER 
(using the napkin) 
Sorry, Mr. DePyster; very sorry. 

DePYSTER 
Sorry be hanged! It wouldn't be so bad if it 
were my suit. Run along; you annoy me. 
(Jupiter vanishes.) 



[41] 



THE ICE LENS 



Poor Jupiter; he's such an ass. Well, Addy dear, 
we must congratulate ourselves on the success of 
our reception — I sure did cut a swell with your suit. 
Mrs. Hunter thought I was a dream. 

ADDER 

(still gazing at the picture) 
Yes ; she must have been asleep to think that. 

DePYSTER 

Well, Addy dear, I know it doesn't fit me so very 
well — but what was I to do? My suit was at the 
pressers; they forgot to return it. I was really in a 
great dilemma — didn't know what to put on. But 
as I sat in profound meditation, the door bell vibrat- 
ed — it was the errand boy with your new suit. So 
I just slipped into it. I knew it was scarcely the 
proper thing to wear, but it at least helped me to 
look conspicuous. I have so few idiosyncrasies, 
you know, that I must seek very ingenious devices 
for attracting attention. 

ADDER 

Well, you sure did it to-night, Ghaunce. Miss 
Lyon told me you looked like a flat tire. 

DePYSTER 

Yes; she punctured my feelings with the same 
remark. Of course I didn't care to have her know 
I was wearing your clothes, and yet I knew she 
might see you in them sooner or later. So I ex- 
plained matters by saying that my tailor made a 
botch of his job and that I was going to sell you 
the garments at half price. Aren't I the clever liar, 
Addy dear? 

[42] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
Damn clever; you should have been a lawyer. 
Consider youself as having won your first suit. 

DePYSTER 
I say, Addy, have you another cigarette? 

ADDER 

No. 

DePYSTER 
Never mind; this one will do. (He removes the 
cigarette from Adder's mouth and begins smoking 
it himself.) 

ADDER 

(still holding the picture frame) 

What do you think of Miss Lyon, Ghaunce? 

DePYSTER 
(blowing the smoke from one corner of his dis- 
torted mouth) 
She's just a mediocre girl; her face is very much 
against her. 

ADDER 

Against her? 

DePYSTER 
(covering his face with his opened hand) 
Yes; flat. I prefer the plumper variety — Mrs. 
Hunter for example. 

ADDER 
Mrs. Hunter! she's a regular old parrot. 

DePYSTER 
Well, I don't exactly know what species, but I 



[43] 



THE ICE LENS 



must admit she is a bird. I've made a date with her 
for the opera. Brilliant woman. 

ADDER 
Well, there's this objection to Jeanette: she's too 
damn refined. These educated girls are all right for 
the mother of a man's children, but for the instru- 
ment of his' pleasure — it takes a girl like Lulu to 
deliver the goods. 

DePYSTER 
Who in the devil is Lulu? 

ADDER 

(placing the frame on the desk and then closing the 

door) 
Just met her last night for the first time. She's 
in town with the Mermaid Burlesquers, and does a 
dance in the last act that is certainly the cream of 
the season. (He unlocks the desk drawer and pro- 
duces a photograph.) There; feast your eyes. 

DePYSTER 
(with a whistle) 
Hasn't she the peacherino of a figure! 

ADDER 
And you ought to see it wiggle in the spot light. 

DePYSTER 
Wiggle? Say oscillate — it doesn't sound so vul- 
gar. 

ADDER 

Ghaunce, old boy, she just steps out on to the 
stage in that costume, and it's enough to bring down 
the whole house. 



[44] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

Sure enough! she has a costume on; I hadn't 
noticed it. 

ADDER 
Just see how it fits her developments. 

DePYSTER 
Ah! it's a blessing to be perfect. Mrs. Hunter 
was raving over my face and figure. 

ADDER 
Yes; they are enough to make anybody rave. 

DePYSTER 
I say, Addy dear, has Lulu any other accomplish- 
ments aside from mere physical charm? 

ADDER 
Yes; she can drink like a fish. (He produces an 
empty champagne bottle from the drawer.) We 
emptied three of these last night. I kept this one 
for sweet recollections. See there ; she has scratched 
her name across the neck with her diamond ring. 
She gave me that ring, and I gave her mine, and 
the joke of it all is that I handed hers over to Jea- 
nette to-night in final settlement of our engagement. 

DePYSTER 
Lord! if Jeanette knew that? 

ADDER 

(tapping on the bottle) 

Mum's the word. You see, Ghaunce, old boy, 

after all a fellow's really got to have two girls — one 

for week days and one for Sunday. Jeanette's my 

Sunday girl— my angel; Lulu's my little devil. Just 



[45] 



THE ICE LENS 



look at her eyes! Compare the two faces: Lulu's 
has the clash and brilliancy of a brass band; Jea- 
nette's is like the sweet strain of a violin slightly 
out of tune. 

DePYSTER 
I told you it was flat. 

ADDER 
(holding up the two pictures, one in each hand) 
Jeanette and Lulu — sarsaparilla and absinthe. 
When I take dinner with Jeanette, it's dry. 

DePYSTER 
And when you take it with Lulu? 

ADDER 
It's extra dry. I tell you, Ghaunce, she's irresisti- 
ble; I'd follow her through fire. 

DePYSTER 
You probably will. 

ADDER 
(taking another picture from the drawer) 
Here's another one; a three-quarter view. But I 
prefer her full. 

DePYSTER 
(holding the second photograph) 
Scanty costume seems to be her long suit. 

ADDER 
She told me her manager thought the public 
wouldn't stand for that. So she added more to it 
by putting another plume in the hat. 

DePYSTER 
Hasn't she the pretty elbows? They annoy me. 



[46] 



THE ICE LENS 



I say, Addy dear, we must tack these up somewhere 
in the room. 

ADDER 
From now on, this one goes in Jeanette's frame 
every day but Sunday. (He removes Jeanette's pic- 
ture, puts it away in the drawer, and places Lulu's 
in the silver frame.) 

DePYSTER 
And the other one? 

ADDER 

On the mantelpiece with the rest of our trophies. 
Where are they? The hell with these receptions 
where you have to turn your room into a Sunday 
school. Bring out the decorations, and make things 
look like home. You get Fatima; she's behind my 
bed. 

(DePyster trots into the bedroom. Adder begins to 
whistle a merry tune; he opens the closet door 
and drags out a large box filled with empty bot- 
tles, steins, etc. He carries it across the room 
to the fireplace.) 

ADDER 
(taking up one of the empty bottles) 
King William ! yum, yum. He who drinks whis- 
key shakes beer. 

(To make place for the bottle, he knocks the bust 
of Shakespeare from the mantelpiece sending 
it to the hearth in pieces.) 

That's such a stale 
joke. 

[47] 



THE ICE LENS 



(He picks up the remains of the cast.) 
I'm sorry I cracked it. 

(He throws the pieces into the fire.) 

Proved at last: Shakes- 
peare is Bacon. 

(With one sweep of his arm he clears the mantel- 
piece of the remaining articles and sends them 
to the floor. He then reads the inscription on 
the labels of the various bottles as he places 
them on the shelf.) 

Monday night; Oct. 4th., with u Bud" 
Taylor, "Bunnie" Miller and "Jack" Allison. 
(He takes a third bottle from the box.) 
Oct. 5th; same bunch. 
(a fourth bottle) 

Oct. 6th. 
(a fifth bottle) 

Oct. 7th. 
(a sixth bottle) 
Oct. 9th. How's that? One missing. 

(He scratches his head.) 
Oh yes ; that's the night we had the keg. 

(He goes over to the couch and rolls a keg out from 
under it. He carries it on his shoulder, and 
places it on one corner of the mantelpiece put- 
ting steins and glasses on top of it. Then he 
stands off to get a good view of the eirtire dis- 
play.) 

Gala Week at the beginning of the fall term. 

(DePyster enters carrying a large oil painting of a 
nude woman in a reclining position. He stands 



[48] 



THE ICE LENS 



on the couch and hangs the picture above it at 
a careless angle.) 

ADDER 
She must hang straight, Ghaunce, or the blood 
will run to her head, and we don't want her to get 
cold feet. 

(DePyster straightens the picture.) 
There, that's better. Now get Psyche; I 
rolled her under your bed. 

(DePyster makes a second trip to the bedroom. 
Adder takes a large "Keep Off The Grass" sign 
and hangs it directly below the painting. He 
tacks suggestive posters on the backs of all the 
doors. Then, returning to his supply box, he 
gets hundreds of empty cigarette boxes strung 
on twine. He puts them up like festoons reach- 
ing from the dome to each corner of the room. 
DePyster enters carrying affectionately in his 
arms a life-sized marble statue of "Psyche." He 
stands her in the center of the floor in front of 
the desk. Adder and DePyster each take one of 
her arms and, striking a majestic pose, they 
shout, u God Bless Our Home.") 

ADDER 
(glancing about the room) 
Now that looks more like it— but I almost forgot 
the finishing touches. 

(He produces a pair of pink stockings from the desk 
drawer, and hangs them up on either side of 
the dome.) 



[49] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

Lulu's — I suppose. 

ADDER . 
Sure thing. 

DePYSTER 
Oh dear, how they annoy me. I say, Addy, I 
must have an introduction to this little Venus of 
yours. What 'o you say we go to the show to-night, 
and then take her down to the "Pink Pigeon?" I 
could be a sort of chaperon. All I'd care for would 
be to pat her once or twice on the elbow. Those 
dear little elbows ! How they annoy me ! 

ADDER 

Nothing doing in that line to-night, Ghaunce. 

DePYSTER 

You mean the mermaids have swum out of town? 

ADDER 
No; they are making their last splash this even- 
ing. 

DePYSTER 
My last chance to see Lulu? 
(He gets two overcoats from the closet. He puts on 
his own — an extreme English cut measuring 
about six inches across the shoulders and flar- 
ing copiously at the bottom. He places a ridicu- 
lously small hat on the top of his head. Then he 
holds out Adder's fur-lined coat to help him on 
with it.) 

DePYSTER 

Jump in. 



[50] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

(filling his pipe) 
Not I, Ghaunce. 

DePYSTER 
Stop your bluffing, and come along. 

ADDER 
Sorry, old man, but I can't — I simply must not 
go. 

DePYSTER 
What's come over you? 

ADDER 
(lighting his pipe) 
I've got to study. 

DePYSTER 

Study! the night after the football game — when 
the whole student body is down town celebrating! 
What the hell are you givin' me? 

ADDER 

(taking a letter from the drawer) 
I mean it. Here, read this. 

DePYSTER 
(solemnly placing Adder's coat on the couch) 
Grandmother dead? 
(He approaches the desk sadly until he recognizes 

the envelope.) 

A letter from the Registrar ! Rats ! 
(With a swing of his arm he knocks the letter from 
Adder's hand into the wastebasket.) 
ADDER 
I get my last crack at that exam tomorrow, and 



[51] 



THE ICE LENS 



if I flunk I'm down and out. 

DePYSTER 

Don't let that worry you. Have your old man 
come up and hot-air to the faculty, or tell him to 
present the university with a hundred thousand, and 
they'll let you in again. 

ADDER 

I've made arrangement with Metcalf to come 
around and tutor me to-night. He's going to pump 
enough dope into my belfry to get me through. 
Don't for a second think I would waste my own gray 
matter on such tommyrot as long as I can find a 
shark with his garret for rent. Poor devils; their 
heads are so crammed full of this nonsense they call 
knowledge that their tongues hang out for money. 
But then we rich must have our servants — the good 
Lord has even, provided us with men to do our 
thinking. 

DePYSTER 

If the possession of wisdom demands the decayed 
condition of these, then let me live forever in ig- 
norance. 

ADDER 

As long as they're helping us to bluff our way 
through we've got to recognize them, but, aside from 
that, I would just as leave lift my hat to a worm 
in the gutter. You haven't seen my book anywhere, 
have you? 

DePYSTER 

I haven't seen a book of any kind for the last 
month — except "Three Weeks." 



[52] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
(fishing a book out of the ivaste basket) 
Here it is. Now really, Ghaunce, don't let me 
keep yon away from the show if yon want to go. 
(then emphatically) I am going to study. 
(With equal emphasis, he plants the frame ivith Lu- 
lu's picture before him on the desk. Then he 
sits down with the book in his hand and the 
pipe in his mouth, but his eyes are on the photo- 
graph.) 

DePYSTER 
You do look usnsual with a book in your hand, 
Addy dear; a glass of Pilsener becomes you much 
better. Perhaps it's the pipe that spoils the picture. 
Let me see if it wouldn't be more harmonious with- 
out it. 

(He removes the pipe from Adder's mouth.) 
Much better ; very much better. 
(The pipe finds its way quite naturally to his own 

mouth.) 

I wouldn't think 
of going to the show alone; I'm going to stay 
right here with you, old pal. 

(He removes his coat and hat throwing them on the 

couch.) 

I'm damn glad to see 

you take your studies so seriously, and believe me 

I wouldn't think of disturbing you. 

(DePyster starts the graphophone to playing a 

dreamy waltz, and, taking the statue of Psyche 

in his arms, he dances noiselessly around the 



[53] 



THE ICE LENS 



desk two or three times and then throws himself 
into the Morris chair puffing out volumes of 
smoke. There is a short silence, save for the 
graphophone, when Adder actually appears in- 
terested in his book. This silence is broken by 
DePysterJ 

DePYSTER 
It will be so hard for me to die and never hear 
any more of this lovely music. Of course I won't 
mind the smoke so much. 

(This remark falls on deaf ears. The graphophone 
stops playing; there is the familiar "scratching" 
at the end of the record, but neither boys make 
an effort to turn it off. After a while Adder 
reads aloud.) 

ADDER 
(reading) 
A man, six feet tall, is walking away from a lamp 
post, ten feet high, at the rate of four miles an hour. 
How fast is his shadow moving? 

DePYSTER 
The problem is absurd — no man with common 
sense would walk away from a lamp post, 
(A band on the street strikes up the Yale football 
song — "Down The Field." DePyster rises in- 
stantly and throws open the window. The room 
is filled with cheers, and his face is aglow in 
the red light from the torches.) 

ADDER 
What's that? 



[54] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

The Parade ! The fellows are celebrating the foot- 
ball victory; I told you they would. Gee, what a 
jolly mob! I say, Addy dear, we can't sit here like 
two old men with the gout. Put on your old gray 
bonnet, and we will try that lamp post problem on 
the way home. 

ADDER 

Confound you, Ghaunce; put down that window. 
I've got to stick to this book to-night. 

DePYSTER 
Book be hanged! Have you no loyalty to show 
for your team? You're a hell of a sport — you sit 
here in a brown study while your classmates are 
painting the town red. It annoys me. 

ADDER 

Damn you; I can't come. I'll be dropped from 
college. 

DePYSTER 

Who gives a rap? Jeanette? Well you've still 
got Lulu, and she'd be prouder of you than ever if 
you flunked every damned course in the curriculum. 
It's just 10.30 — time for her dance in the last act. 
She's going through those little movements — every- 
one in the audience is cheering — the whole house is 
mad — and now she's looking for you in the front 
row — her eyes are calling out passionately for you 
to come. Are you going to say "no"? Like hell you 
are. Gome along; don't be a quitter. 

(DePyster again puts on his overcoat and hat, and 



[55] 



THE ICE LENS 



executes a lively and sensual dance. The band 
seems louder; the red fire, brighter; the cheers, 
more spirited. He snatches one of the pink 
stockings from the dome, and dangles it before 
Adder's eyes in tempo icith the music. Adder. 
under great temptation, squirms about in his 
chair. He finally succumbs, takes up Lulu's 
picture, covers it ivith kisses, returns it to the 
desk, and then dons his hat and overcoat.) 

ADDER 
You've got me. Ghaunce; you've got me, old pal; 
we're in for one hell of a good time. 
(They throw their arms about each other, join in 
on a loud war cry, and rush to the door. On 
opening it, they find Metcalf standing on the 
threshold with a book under his arm.) 
DePYSTER 

(aside) 
Damn. 

ADDER 
(politely removing his hat) 
Good evening, Mr. Metcalf. I have decided not 
to tutor to-night, Here's the money for the time 
I reserved with you. (He passes him the fee.) We 
think it will do us more good to grind out the les- 
son for ourselves, so we are going over to Dick 
Thomson's room on the campus to study together. 
(to DePyster) Don't forget the text book, Ghaunce. 
(to Metcalf; Good night, Sir. 

(Adder bows very properly. DePyster takes the book 

[56] 



THE ICE LENS 



under his arm, and both boys leave the room 
where the lights are left on and the window 
open. They close the door. 
Templeton has been writing at his desk ever since 
Lyon left him and closed his door on the scenes 
which we have witnessed in the meanwhile.) 

TEMPLETON 
(responding to a knock on his door) 
Come in. 

METGALF 
(entering Templeton's room) 
Hollow there, Templeton. 

TEMPLETON 

(rising) 
Why, you are almost a stranger here. 

METGALF 
(shaking hands) 
I just dropped in to tutor young Adder, but he 
has decided to work out the lesson with a classmate. 
They will learn more by it. I never thought they 
took such a personal interest in their studies. I'll 
have a better opinion of them after this. 
(At this instant, the text book comes flying in 
through the open window in Adder's room. 
There is a prolonged cheer from the street, and 
then the noise dies away as the parade moves 
on.) 

The students 
are certainly doing the town up in great shape to- 
night. 



[57] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

If they would show one half the enthusiasm in 
their studies, we would have a wonderful universi- 

ty. 

METGALF 
There would be no more need for instructors, 
and I'd get my walking papers. But I suppose it 
was a great game; you can't blame them for feel- 
ing their oats. I wish I could be half as happy. 
(He lets his book slip from under his arm to the 
floor, and throws himself despondently into the 
large chair.) 

TEMPLETON 
(sitting) 
Why, what is the matter, Metcalf? You seem 
low in spirits. 

METGALF 
(glancing about the room) 
You're a free man; I envy you. You can thank 
your stars you don't have to red off the supper 
table, put on diapers, and wash dishes. 

TEMPLETON 
Why don't you get a maid? 

METGALF 
Maid! I'm lucky I have enough money to keep 
the kids in shoes. Look at that hat. (He throws 
his shabby derby on the desk.) I bought it at a 
second-hand store for a quarter. I haven't smoked 
a decent cigar since the youngest arrived, and the 
only amusement I get is a moving-picture show at 



[58] 



THE ICE LENS 



the nickelodeon once a month when my salary 

check comes around. 

(It is true that Metcalf's appearance justifies De- 
Pyster's remark on his "decayed condition." 
It is due however to his clothes only; otherwise 
he is entirely human.) 

TEMPLETON 

Well surely you didn't go into teaching with 
the idea of making money? You knew in advance 
that the pay was poor. Teaching is reserved for 
the man who has married a bank account. 

METGALF 

Rats ! Ours wasn't a financial deal. I was lonely 
for a true companion, and I married Kate because 
I loved her. 

TEMPLETON 

Yes; that is considered a very common mistake. 
Nowadays the faculty teach for love and marry for 
money. 

METGALF 

Nowadays the faculty don't teach at all. Teach- 
ing is entirely out of date; it has been replaced by 
the "research mania" — a disease where the victim 
is consumed by a ravishing desire to produce arti- 
cles for collecting the dust in our libraries. Write 
a twenty-page pamphlet which nobody — not even 
yourself — can or needs to comprehend, and every 
line of it adds a dollar to your salary. But put your 
effort on teaching something that everyone can and 
should understand, and you're a disgrace to your 
university. 



[59] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 
Gome, come, it is not so bad as all that. There 
is nothing disgraceful about a small income. 

METCALF 
It is not only income; it is recognition. We 
teachers who are trying to rescue the multitude from 
a sea of ignorance are looked down upon by these 
research gods whom the university places on pedes- 
tals, and for whom they erect million-dollar tem- 
ples in which to hatch their butterfly eggs. Let us 
be frank; now who is the greater benefactor? The 
man who goes on investigating either something 
footless or something superintellectual (there's not 
much difference between them) or the man who im- 
parts to humanity those things which have already 
been discovered and found useful? 

TEMPLETON 

Of course you can not deny the nobleness of 
experiments resulting in the general welfare and 
progress of the race. 

METCALF 

Decidedly not. But what has the world gained 
through the discovery that there are always two 
million and one hairs on a cat's tail, or that Shakes- 
peare never ate mutton? Rot! What the world needs 
to know is that two and two make four, and it should 
be the office of a college to provide with a respectable 
income those men who are teaching it, The Amer- 
ican public always has been an easy mark: they 
believe that the money they pay out as tuition for 
their sons at college procures for them the best pos- 

[60] 



THE ICE LENS 



sible educators. They are not aware of the fact that 
Old Tiddledewinks, for example, who lectures to one 
solitary disciple on some highfalutin meander of 
his lopsided mind sits there and rakes in his five 
thousand a year, while the man who hands out com- 
mon-sense to over a hundred of their sons doesn't 
draw the salary of a New York policeman. 

TEMPLETON 
Don't consider it an injustice until you consider 
other things aside from money. It is not what we 
get out of this world; it is what we do to improve 
it that counts. 

METGALF 
That counts for what? 

TEMPLETON 
That counts toward the greatest of all posses- 
sions — happiness. Aren't you improving mankind 
by your teaching, and aren't you rewarded happily 
for doing it? If you think these more highly paid 
souls are happy, you are much mistaken. There 
they sit surrendering their whole lives deciphering 
the yellow wormy pages of some Hebrew manu- 
script, fondling the dead bones of some prehistoric 
skeleton, inhaling the offensive fumes of virulent 
chemicals, and alternately exciting their thirst for 
worldly fame with stimulants, then quenching it 
with deadly narcotics. Be merciful ; don't begrudge 
them their salary. It is all they have to console 
them in their miserable solitude. 
(He rises and pats Metcalf firmly on the shoulder.) 



[61] 



THE ICE LENS 



Wake up, Metcalf; 
get on your knees, and thank God you have a home 
that rings with children's laughter. 

METCALF 
But the children must be fed? 

TEMPLETON 
Give them lots of fresh air and a banana now 
and then; they'll grow. 

METCALF 

It is easy enough for you to look at the bright 
side of things. 

TEMPLETON 

It is easy enough for anyone. All we have to 
do is to turn the dark side away. 

METCALF 
That's more easily said than done. 

TEMPLETON 
Then look for an instant at something darker, 
and you will soon find that your own isn't so black 
after all. Think of the coal digger who descends 
with his family into a mine, and never gets a 
glimpse of daylight. 

METCALF 
(rising to take Templeton's hand in both of his own) 
That has made me feel happier than I have in a 
long while. 

TEMPLETON 
That's the proper spirit. The life of a married 
man with a modest income and a healthy family 



[62] 



THE ICE LENS 



isn't so gloomy after all, is it? Perhaps you did 
marry too soon. Yet who knows but that you 
avoided a greater mistake by doing so. Thank God 
the children your wife has brought into the world 
are blessed with a pure birth and a clean father. 
The world stands badly in need of such children. 

METGALF 
I don't see you doing anything in that direction. 

TEMPLETON 
There is another love which this world needs 
even more than nuptial love. God only knows there 
are enough neglected children whom the childless 
may well take under their wings for guidance. 
Not only children, but men — men without reason 
whose parents, through ignorance, are unable to 
pilot them. These must be saved and conquered 
with that love we call "Fraternity." 

METGALF 
Settlement work in other words? 

TEMPLETON 
No ; the poorer people are happier than we think 
they are. They are forced to labor, but they enjoy 
the fruits of it. It is the people of means who, 
having had all provisions of life made for them, 
become idle and indulge in pleasures which event- 
ually lead to misery far deeper than the pain which 
any poverty-stricken mortal has yet experienced. 

, METGALF 
The social evil? Abolish that? We might just 
as well try to teach elephants how to knit. 



[63] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

I am not referring to the destruction of the full- 
grown weeds; it is the seed that should be destroyed. 

METGALF 

The seed? 

TEMPLETON 

Yes; and we need not wander far to find it. It 
is here — here in our midst — where the seed of most 
of that misery is planted. It is here — here at the 
great American university where the Well-to-do send 
their sons. 

METGALF 
It sounds like a sweeping statement, 

TEMPLETON 
But it is as true as it is unfortunate. If a man 
has lived a clean and moral life in college, he will 
continue to live it the rest of his days. But he is 
just at that age where it is only too easy for him to 
fall into the jaws of corruption by taking one care- 
less step, and in consequence he is rendered unfit 
for his work not only in college but in life after 
graduation. 

METGALF 
(sitting down again) 
You interest me; continue. 

TEMPLETON 
The appetites developed in youth linger and grow 
more intense. The man become coarse and evil- 
minded: he is intoxicated by the sight of a bottle; 
he commits adultery when he looks at a woman; 



[64] 



THE ICE LENS 



he ruins the happiness of his family by urging his 
son to follow his footsteps and by treating his wife 
and his daughter with the same disrespect as the 
wanton on whom he feeds. 

METGALF 
What has started you on this path? Have you 
been playing the spy and making discoveries? 

TEMPLETON 

No, Metcalf; I am not "unearthing wickedness 
with a spade." It isn't necessary to dig for hidden 
evidence. When the ruddy face of youth grows 
pale and thin, when the eyes grow dull and slimy, 
when the hand trembles, — isn't that evidence 
enough ? 

METGALF 
You do observe, don't you? 

TEMPLETON 

(sitting) 
Yes ; you are too deeply concerned with your own 
petty misfortune to notice this. But here, Metcalf, 
is real misfortune which brings grief to the heart of 
God himself. 

METGALF 
Do you lay all the blame on the students? 

TEMPLETON 

No; I shall say this in their defense: they are 
still children. Our student body isn't very far in 
advance of a kindergarten. Like children, they 
lack minds of their own and think they must imitate 
others in their habits; like children, they will pick 



[65] 



THE ICE LENS 



up almost anything off the street; like children, they 
never know when they have enough. 

METGALF 

Everyone of them should be tied to a nurse's 
apron string. 

TEMPLETON 

It should concern the parent rather than the 
nurse. The fact that we are sending our sons away 
to college and placing their discipline in their own 
hands is no matter for pride and elation. We are 
simply starting them out on that unfamiliar road 
which soon divides — the one way leading to service, 
righteousness and glory; the other to indolence, cor- 
ruption and ruin. 

METGALF 
You mean the parent sees and hears only the 
brighter side of the son's college career? 

TEMPLETON 
Fathers who have gone through the same exper- 
ience take pride in exposing their sons to the tempt- 
ing pleasures which they believe make the man, but 
mothers, sisters and sweethearts know nothing of 
these darker events, and picture the young men only 
as heroes of wisdom and virtue. They are blind, 
blind, blind. 

METGALF 
Perhaps it is better so. Would you have them 
burdened with all the worry such knowledge would 
inevitably bring? 

TEMPLETON 
It would not bring worry; it would fan and 



[66] 



THE ICE LENS 



brighten the flame of maternal love which is being 
gradually extinguished by the fads and follies of 
modern society. Mothers lose track of their boys 
too soon; the boys are not so quick at doing wrong 
if they think their mothers know of it. 

METCALF 
Well, aren't college morals occasionally attacked 
in our newspapers and periodicals? 

TEMPLETON 

And immediately denied or made light of in a 
subsequent issue. 

METCALF 
By whom? 

TEMPLETON 
By various persons. Sometimes by university 
officials who are striving to uphold either falsely or 
ignorantly the moral standing of their institution; 
sometimes by good-natured optimists who resent 
the exposure of evil; again by individuals who 
themselves are victims of immorality, and who fear 
a further publication of their own deeds. 

METCALF 

And others there are, I presume — scores of them 
— who remain in silence but know only too well the 
hidden truth. 

TEMPLETON 

One way of preventing discord is not to play on 

our pipes, but I fail to see how we extol our Alma 

Mater by trying to conceal the deadly elements 

which are tending to undermine her foundation. 



[67] 



THE ICE LENS 



There must be a reform. I long for it: I crave for 

it. 

(Templeton rises and paces the floor restlessly.) 

METCALF 

Why do you let it prey on you? Are you respon- 
sible for the sins of others? 

TEMPLETON 
Yes; I am — at least, when I feel that I have 
done nothing to try to prevent them. 

METCALF 

It's no affair of yours; let them go to the dogs 
if thev wish to. 

TEMPLETON 

If they wish to? Do you believe these men are 
actually willing to throw their lives away? Far 
from it. There is a better self in every one of them 
which is crying out for help and strength, and no 
man who would be a Christian can ignore it and 
pass by them on the other side. 

METCALF 
Isn't there a God to answer their cries? 

TEMPLETON 
Omnipotent as He is, we expect too much of 
God alone. He needs our co-operation. He gives 
us the use of His own power, but we fail to exercise 
it, and we sit with folded hands waiting for ad- 
justment and progress in exchange for mere confi- 
dence devoid of individual exertion. It is true, Met- 
calf, that this reform must come mainly through the 
students themselves, but college administration can 
do its share. 

[68] 



THE ICE LENS 



METGALF 
Yes; I believe you are right after all. It is high 
time we unbend our knees to research idols and 
intellectual polliwogs, and turn our attention to the 
needs of the undergraduate for whom — all said and 
done — a university really exists. 

TEMPLETON 
We are graduating from our institution too 
many men who are undeserving of the degree we 
confer upon them. A large number of them manage 
to get through somehow or other, and enter their 
life's work with false insignia on their extended 
chests. The real scholar who has earned his laurel 
by consistent study has gained nothing over him 
who has usurped it by trickery. 

METGALF 
Education nowadays is little more than a farce; 
we are expected to make scholars out of men whose 
ambitions are no higher than toadstools. I pro- 
pose that we confer two degrees : one to reward at- 
tainment in scholarship — call it the A. B. indicating 
u Ambitious Benjamin;" the other for social equip- 
ment — the B. A. indicating "Bragging Archie." 

TEMPLETON 
What we really need is more learning and less 
display: we crowd our campus with stately build- 
ings which serve rather for ornament than for edu- 
cation ; we emblazon our faculty with the names of 
renowned men whom our students never meet; we 
adjust our requirements so as to graduate an os- 



[69] 



THE ICE LENS 



tentatiously large number in consequence of which 
the quality is lowered. 

METGALF 
True enough. A university should be something 
more than a set of self-centered specialists assem- 
bled on a square mile of beautiful architecture 
where young men are trained to pass four years of 
recreation with three ounces of knowledge. 

TEMPLETON 
Its one great purpose should be the moulding of 
upright citizens for the future, but this service can 
never be rendered until we raise the standard of 
scholarship. 

METGALF 
That is, you hold that by raising the standard 
of scholarship, we will raise the moral standard as 
well. 

TEMPLETON 
Yes. Economy is a rigid law of Nature, and the 
average man will do no more than our low standard 
demands of him. With surplus time on his hands, 
he naturally seeks pastime and alas! he finds it in 
vice. Rectitude is worth more than all of Newton, 
Vergil and Euclid put together, but these may well 
be a means to that end by replacing unhealthful 
thought in the youthful mind. 

METGALF 
I fear we should have a task suppressing in 
youth "The Gall of the Wild." 

TEMPLETON 
That should not be our intention. A weak set of 



[70] 



THE ICE LENS 



humans we would be had we neither spirit nor ap- 
petite, but it is our struggle to purify and limit these, 
that makes us strong and lifts us above the animal 
level. 

METGALF 

It will take something more startling than Euclid 
to agitate such a struggle. 

TEMPLETON 

I am not claiming it will result from study alone. 
We must take hold of the man and stir up the bet- 
ter self which has stagnated in the recesses of his 
soul. He needs a brother to take his hand, to lead 
him out into the light where he can see with his own 
eyes the animal which grovels behind him in the 
darkness — a coarse inhuman brute living selfishly 
and sluggishly on the hoard of others, stealing what 
little it has acquired for itself only by cunning and 
concealment, everlastingly consuming weeds, quaf- 
fing more than its body can hold, and reveling like a 
glutton over human flesh. Were such habits intend- 
ed for man, they would not result in defeat, misery, 
disease and crime. But to give up the beast, to use 
the reason and will which is given to man alone, to 
grasp the higher purpose in life for the betterment 
of ourselves and our fellowmen, to serve in the pro- 
motion of decency, wisdom, justice and righteous- 
ness; in a word, to serve God — that is victory, that is 
happiness, that is life. 

METGALF 
You are enthusiastic; but how can this light be 
given to the many who need it. 

[71] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

I am trying to shed it by writing a play. 

METGALF 

But at the same time, you are exposing that 
which may bring anguish to many an innocent 
heart which is now apparently happy. 

TEMPLETON 
Temporary sorrow is the bud which blossoms 
into true happiness. There is no real happiness in 
the deferment of grief. This evil, like the poison- 
ous plant in the depth of the forest, will thrive and 
spread until it is brought out into the sunlight of 
an open meadow. However intense the pain, I 
shall cut deep with the knife of truth, bring the 
poison to the surface, and heal the wound with the 
balm of love. 

METGALF 
Your task requires courage. Have you no fear? 
(He rises.) 

TEMPLETON 
Fear! Why should I hesitate to do what is right 
and necessary? Is it not my very love for my uni- 
versity that prompts me to show that her morals 
should be and will be rectified, that her standards 
must be elevated? Is it not the fraternal devotion 
in my aching heart that compels me to arouse among 
her students a hatred for all that is wrong, and a 
greater respect for themselves, their intimates, their 
Alma Mater and their God? Why should I fear to 
act on that which He has inspired within me. (He 



[72] 



THE ICE LENS 



)>oints to the psalm above his bed.) "He shall cover 
thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt 
thou trust; his truth shall he thy shield and buck- 
ler." 

METGALF 

But men there are so destitute of character that 
they will not admit their own faults, and, when their 
acts are plainly and justly made known by others, 
they will burn with revengo, and that revenge may 
result in your downfall. 

TEMPLETON 

It is possible to make from ice a lens which will 
project images with sufficient magnification to show 
clearly many a defect unobserved in the original by 
the ordinary eye. Rays of sunlight passing through 
this lens can be so focused as to kindle a fire al- 
though the lens itself is left whole and unmelted. 

METGALF 
(taking his booh and hat in his hand) 

I see you have gone into it body and soul. (He 
grasps Templeton's hand.) Good night, and God 
be with you. 

(Metcalf leaves the room, closing the door softly be- 
hind him. 

Templeton stands in silence for a few moments. 
Then he removes his robe, takes his white night 
clothes from the chiffonier, places them on his 
bed, and turns off both lights in his room. 

The front door of the house opens and closes with 
a slam. There is a noise due to two men stag- 
gering up the stairs. The door to Adder's room 



[73] 



T 



THE ICE LENS 



is opened violently, and he staggers in badly 
under the influence of liquor — his cap missing; 
his hair disarranged; the front of his dress shirt 
open. DePyster, comparatively less sober, fol- 
lows behind, closing the door noiselessly. Adder 
discards his coats on the floor, and manages to 
reach the fireplace ivhere he accidentally knocks 
a few bottles from the shelf sending them to the 
hearth with a crash.) 

ADDER 
(sinking into the Morris chair) 
Thank stars! We are back, Chaimce. That was 
the closest shave I ever had, but I can always de- 
pend on you, old pal, to seeing me home. You're a 
good fellow, Ghaunce; you're a damn good fellow. 
And you were a damn lucky fellow to know about 
that back window. I almost broke my neck when I 
jumped to the pavement. 

DePYSTER 
I wonder what's become of Lulu? 

ADDER 
Don't worry about Lulu. I guess this isn't the 
first raid she's been in; it's an old game with her. 
Hell! I wish the little devil were here to put me to 
bed. 

(He rips off his dress shirt, and then removes his 
shoes throwing them noisily across the floor.) 
Can you blame me, Ghaunce? Can you? 

DePYSTER 

Nay, nay; I say she's a pippin. I never shall for- 
get her elbows. 



[74] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
Gut out the elbows, and get my pajamas, will 
you? 

(DePyster carefully feels his way into the bedroom. 
Adder rises and approaches Psyche, first eyeing 
her with suspicion, and then embracing the 
statue vulgarly.) 
Oh, you Lulu; oh, you Lulu. 
(He carries the statue across the room, and falls with 
it in his arms upon the couch. DePyster re- 
turns with the pajamas.) 

Gome kiss me good 
night, Ghaunce. 

DePYSTER 
Yes, Addy dear. 

ADDER 
And come around later; I may want you to hold 
my head. 

(DePyster covers Adder with the pajamas and then 
gives him an audible kiss.) 
DePYSTER 
Pleasant dreams. 

ADDER 
Good night, old pal. 
(DePyster staggers to the bedroom door, and, turn- 
ing the switch there, he extinguishes all the 
lights in the room. He enters the bedroom, and 
Adder, left to himself, soon commences to snore 
beastlike on the couch. 
Templeton, sensitive to all that has happened, lights 



[75] 



THE ICE LENS 



the gaslamp in his room, and stands thoughtful- 
ly at the side of his desk in his white night 
clothes. The expression on his face reveals a 
profound compassion for the transgressor.) 

ADDER 

(talking in his sleep) 
Lulu, you damn little witch! 

(The strains of "Bright College Years" are heard 
from the band in the distance. The counte- 
nance of Templeton, inspired by the music, 
changes suddenly to one significant of deter- 
mination and courage. He seizes his pen, and, 
trembling with enthusiasm, he bends over his 
desk and writes with renewed vigor. 

Adder, in his drunken stupor, remains unconscious 
of the approaching tumult. Just as the music, 
swelling in grandeur, reaches the final strain — 
"For God, For Country and For Yale" — , the 
procession passes under the window in his 
room, and a patch of brilliant red light falls 
across the large banner bearing that inscrip- 
tion.) 



[76] 



ACT TWO 



ACT TWO 

(The sunlight passes through.) 

The scene is the same as in Act One; the time is the 
evening of the following day. 

Adder's room is again in order: the folding chairs 
have been removed, and the broken glass from 
the bottles has been swept away. But all the 
decorations, including one pink stocking on the 
dome, are still up. 

DePyster, with his head in a bandage and his body 
in a very "loud" robe, sits toasting in the Morris 
chair before a cracking fire. He is all alone with 
Psyche who stands before him buttoned up in 
his own black coat, which covers her anatomy 
from the waist to the knee. 

Templeton's room is vacant, but the electric wall 
light is on; the gaslamp on the desk is not burn- 
ing. 



im 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

(calling) 
Jupiter, Jupiter, Jupiter, (no response) Con- 
found his soul; he's never here when I want him. 
Jupiter, Jupiter. 

(Jupiter slips in on tiptoe.) 

JUPITER 
I hegs yah pardon, sah. Did I hear yah callin' 
me, or did I only imagine it? 

DePYSTER 
You never hear anything. Where in the devil 
have you been? 

JUPITER 
I's been shinin' shoes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
Send up some heat; the house is like a refriger- 
ator. I had to build a fire myself. I soiled my hands 
fearfully, and almost broke my spine carrying the 
logs. It's no work for a gentleman — in particular 
when he's sick. You had better stay on your job. 
If you don't fire that furnace, we'll fire you. ^Yhen 
I awoke this morning, my feet were like ice. 

JUPITER 
Why didn't yah git up, sah, and walk around a 
bit — yah might 'ave stoved yah toe. 

DePYSTER 
Xo joking. Don't make sport of my complaints: 
I'm sick as a cat. Hand me my pipe and Mr. Adder's 
tobacco jar. 



[80] 



THE ICE LENS 



(Jupiter passes him the articles from the desk.) 
I've got such a nasty taste in my mouth. 

JUPITER 
Dark brown ? 

DePYSTER 

(filling his pipe) 
Yes; ever had it? 

JUPITER 
It's my natural color, sah. 

DePYSTER 

(passing him the jar) 
Here, take this; it annoys me. 

JUPITER 

(placing it on the desk) 
You mean it jars you. 

DePYSTER 
Got a match? 

JUPITER 
(getting one from his pocket) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
Strike it for me; I'm too weak. 

JUPITER 

(holding the burning match over his pipe) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
That's all; you may go now. You annoy me. 

JUPITER 
(leaving) 
Yes, sail. 



[81] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 
Jupiter. 

JUPITER 
(returning) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
I'm as hungry as a pup; go over to Reilly's and 
get me a "dog." 

JUPITER 
Five cents, sah. 

DePYSTER 
Have it charged. 

JUPITER 
With mustard, sah? 

DePYSTER 
No; with gunpowder. 

JUPITER 
(leaving) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
Jupiter. 

JUPITER 
(returning) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
On your way, stop at the barber shop, and tell 
Gusty to come over and shave me. 

JUPITER 

(leaving) 
Yes, sah. 



[82] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 
Jupiter. 

JUPITER 
(returning) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 
And drop in the drug store, and get me two of 
Lydia Pinkham's Pills. 

JUPITER 
(leaving) 
Yes, sah. 

DePYSTER 

(to himself) 
Poor Jupiter — silly ass. 

JUPITER 
(returning) 
Will I have dem pills charged too? 
DePYSTER 
(angrily) 
Yes, sah. 
fJupiter leaves the room briskly. DePyster rises and 
walks toward the graphophone.) 
Oh! such a spinning headache. 
(He starts the graphophone with a noisy two-step, 
and then returns to his chair. After a while the 
door bell rings. It rings a second time long and 
loud.) 

Some people have 
no consideration for the sick. 
(The laundry man appears in the doorway. He 



[83] 



THE ICE LENS 



raps on the door frame. It is not heeded. He 
raps a second time.) 

DePYSTER 

(feebly) 
Come in. 

MAN 
(entering) 
Is this Mr. DePyster? 

DePYSTER 
(neither rising nor turning about) 
No; he's out of town. 

MAN 
Would you mind giving him this bill when he 
returns? 

DePYSTER 
Gladly! just leave it on the desk. 

MAN 
Thank you. (He does so and walks out.) 
(DePyster rises, walks to the desk, picks up the bill, 
and, without having looked at it, he tears it up, 
and throivs the scraps into the wastebasket. The 
laundry man returns.) 

MAN 
I'm sorry, but I gave you the wrong bill. It was 
Mr. Adder's. May I trouble you to hand it back? 

DePYSTER 

(excitedly) 

Oh, that's all right; he rooms here too, and 
I'll see that he gets it. 



im 



THE ICE LENS 



But there's a mistake — I forgot to add Inst 
month's account. 

DePYSTER 
Never mind doing that. What's the total? I'm 
his roommate; I might just as well pay the entire 
hill for him. 

MAN 
(opening his memorandum) 
2.67. 

DePYSTER 
I'll write out a check. 
(He sits down at the desk with a business -like air, 
opens the drawer, produces a check book, writes 
with a flourish, tears out a leaf, and hands it 
to the agent.) 

MAN 

(looking over the check) 
Good signature, Mr. DePyster; might just as well 
make out another one — your hill is 17.32. 
(A sheepish look appears on DePyster's face. He 
writes a second check. The agent takes it, and 
places the receipted bill on the desk.) 

Thank 
you. Good evening, Sir. 

(The man tvalks out.) 

DePYSTER 
(slamming the door after him) 
Damn. 

(He stops the graphophone abruptly, walks to the 

[85] 



THE ICE LENS 



desk, and picks up the telephone in anger.) 
Chestnut 23; . . . Hellow . . bellow. 
Is this Hunter's residence? . . . (then all in one 
breath) Tell Mrs. Hunter this is the fishman. and he 
can't take her to the opera until the beginning of 
next month because he has overdrawn his allow- 
ance. 

(He drops the telephone noisily, throws himself into 
the Morris chair, and smokes his pipe in quick 
short puffs. 
Adder enters in the best of spirits. He tosses his 
cap and book on the couch.) 
ADDER 
Well, old pal, how are you feeling? 
DePYSTER 

(ivith a snarl) 
Rotten. 

ADDER 
So bad as all that? 

DePYSTER 
Yes; my head's aching like sixty, and my back- 
bone's almost killing me. 

ADDER 

Oh hell! you should have gone to Yassar. 

DePYSTER 
AYhat makes you so crabbed? Did you flunk your 
exam? 

ADDER 
Flunk! well I guess not. Jeff Lyon sat right in 
front of me, and when he finished his paper I jerked 



[86] 



THE ICE LENS 



his coat tail and pointed to my frat pin. He did 
his duty, and passed back a copy of all the answers. 
The supervisor snored through the whole examin- 
ation — I had to wake him up when I handed over 
my paper. 

DePYSTER 

Anything on about the lamp-post problem? 

ADDER 
Not a damn ; the nearest thing to it was about a 
schooner sailing homeward. 

DePYSTER 

Gould you answer it? 

ADDER 
I swallowed it whole. 

DePYSTER 
Then you feel sure you passed? 

ADDER 
Without a doubt. 

DePYSTER 

And you won't be dropped? 

ADDER 

Nay, nay. (He dances happily about the room.) 
There are two ways to get through college, Chaunce ; 
one is to paddle your own canoe, and the other is 
to have someone paddle it for you. You'd be sur- 
prised to know the number of bone heads floating 
about the country with a college degree dangling 
from the end of their tongues. Look at yourself 
for example — repeating your freshman year for the 
third time. You should have been kicked out of 



[87] 



THE ICE LENS 



this place before you ever got in. But you'll gradu- 
ate — I'll bet my head on it. Why the faculty will 
get so damned tired of you hanging around tbat 
they'll give you your sheepskin and tell you to beat 
it. * 

DePYSTER 
And you with all your brains won't set any- 
thing better. 

ADDER 
A degree no longer stands for brains: it has be- 
come an essential part of every gentleman's ward- 
robe just like a patent-leather pump or an English 
walking-stick. A fellow's a damn fool to study his 
head off when he can get one without it. To hell 
with books. (He snatches his book from the couch, 
tears out the leaves, and tosses them into the fire.) 
Me for a jolly good time. Seen the evening paper? 
(He removes a newspaper from his coat pocket.) 
Great write-up about the raid last night — front page 
— large red letters — but no names given. 

DePYSTER 
Lucky for you, old man. You would have had 
a fine time adjusting matters with Jeanette. 

ADDER 
Little Innocence, she'll never know a word 
about it. 

DePYSTER 
Don't be too sure. Remember her brother — Jef- 
ferson — lives right here with us under the same 
roof. 



[88] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
What of it? Do you think he's going to squeal? 

DePYSTER 

There's no telling what he might let slip from 
his lips. He is such an ass; he annoys me. 

ADDER 
I know damn well he's a sad bird, but I had good 
reasons for making him a member of our fraternity. 
In the first place he belongs to one of the first 
families of the state, and therefore his election to 
our frat gives us all a social pull; in the second 
place, by doing this, I myself get a better stand-in 
with his sister Jeanette — the most popular debutante 
in town; in the third place he's under pledge as a 
good fellow not to let out the off-color doings of 
any of his brethern. So you see, Ghaunce, I've got 
him just where I want him — I can do anything I 
damn please, and Jeanette never knows it and thinks 
just as much of me as ever. 

DePYSTER 
Does Jefferson know about our lark last night? 

ADDER 
No, but I'm going to tell him the whole thing 
from beginning to end. 

DePYSTER 
I think you're a fool to do it. 

ADDER 
You're showing the wrong spirit, DePyster. 
Aren't we all united? Isn't it agreed there shall be 
no secrets among us? If we expect Jeff to be our 



[89] 



THE ICE LENS 



pal. it's up to us to bo his. I may be a cheat when 
it comes to an exam, or I may be false to the girl, 
but this much I swear: To my dying day I'll be loyal 
to my frat. 

DePYSTER 
Well, when you tell him, please don't mention 
my name in the matter. My mother would turn 
over and die if she would ever find out that her 
darling Ghauncey as much as looked at a chorus 
girl. I was considered the most upright man in my 
home town, and the first time I left for college 
Mamma placed a Bible under my arm. 

ADDER 
She was trying to make a saint out of you. 

DePYSTER 
She used to preach to me for hours, and I always 
promised to be a very, very good boy. 

ADDER 
Thank heavens, my mother never took such a 
foolish interest in me. She is head over heels in 
society : president of The Women's Club, vice-presi- 
dent of The Mother's Club, secretary of The Home 
of Neglected Children, and so forth. She writes 
articles on The Care of French Poodles. Has four 
of them at home: (He counts them on his fingers.) 
Flosette, Peepo, Melisande and Napoleon. Feeds 
them on marshmallows and certified milk; bathes 
them in eau de Cologne. Some class to mother! 
As to my old man, we've gone out together on 
many a lark with something ten times as spicy as 



[90] 



THE ICE LENS 



Lulu. Parent's up to date — eh ! And after all, what 
good has your mother's Bible clone? 

DePYSTER 

I sold it for cigarette money. 

ADDER 
Holy smoke! 

DePYSTER 
A week later, Mother wrote and asked me if I 
had found the five-dollar bill she had placed opposite 
the ten commandments in the fifth book of Moses. 

ADDER 
Rather expensive cigarettes — eh? 

DePYSTER 
I had to tell her I lost Bible and all. 

ADDER 
What was the answer? 

DePYSTER 
Another Bible. 

ADDER 
Any money in it? 

DePYSTER 
As soon as it arrived I turned over every page 
from Genesis to Revelation, and didn't find a damn 
cent, and what was worse — I couldn't even sell this 
one. 

ADDER 
How's that? 

DePYSTER 
There it is in the book case. Look what's 
stamped all over the cover in gold. 



[91] 



THE ICE LENS 



(Adder walks to the book case, finds the Bible, and 
blows a cloud of dust from it.) 

ADDER 
(reading the inscription on the cover) 
To Saintly Chauncey DePyster from the Y. M. 
G. A. of Oswego. 

DePYSTER 

(rising and pacing up and down the floor) 
They must not find it out. They dare not find it 
out — their saintly Chauncey patting the elbows of 
a chorus lady! The very thought annoys me. 

ADDER 

(throwing the Bible down on the desk) 
Hell! you're worse than an old woman — they 
are always taking their medicine before they are 
sick. 

DePYSTER 
Believe me: Jefferson Lyon cannot be trusted. 
He will gossip it everywhere, and even tell the 
heathens about it when he commences his crusade 
in China. Addy dear, you've made me sicker than 
ever. Oh ! 

(DePyster throivs himself on the couch.) 
(Gusty — the little fat and immaculate German barber 
— enters in his slippered feet. He carries a 
long pipe in his mouth and a satchel in his 
hand.) 

GUSTY 
Yer is it vat vants a shave? 



[92] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
(pointing to the couch) 
The Dying Gladiator. 

(He retires to the bedroom.) 

GUSTY 
(opening his satchel on the desk and getting out his 
razor, shaving soap, brush, towel, etc.) 
Kome along, Hercules. 

DePYSTER 

(rising) 
I think I'll have to postpone it, Gusty. I've got 
a fearful headache, and I'm a nervous wreck. I'm 
afraid you'll cut me. 

GUSTY 
(taking off his coat and rolling up his shirt sleeves) 
Dat's all right; I vas got a saf-e-ty razor to use 
on your beard. Your head vill feel a lots better 
after I takes it off. 

DePYSTER 

(sitting in the Morris chair where Gusty prepares 
him by pinning a towel about his neck) 
Now remember, Gusty, my skin is soft and sen- 
sitive, and I don't want the barber's itch. 

GUSTY 
(mixing a lather on DePyster's face, and dabbing 
his brush back and forward as though he were 
painting the side of a house) 
Don't verry about dat; I mix every man's ladder 



in his own individual mug 



&■ 



(Jupiter enters with small packages.) 

[93] 



THE ICE LENS 



JUPITER 
Here am yah dog sandwich and yah pills, Mr. 
DePyster. 

DePYSTER 
Bring it quick; I am almost famished. And get 
me a glass of water. 

(Jupiter hands him the sandwich, and then enters 
the bedroom. DePyster devours it ivith a large 
amplitude to his jaw. He eats lather and all.) 

GUSTY 
Ven your jaws goes up and down like a pump 
handle, how do you exsphect me to amputate your 
fringe ? 

DePYSTER 

I'll be through directly, Gusty. You might sit 
down and read a little while ; there's my Bible on the 
desk. 

GUSTY 
Make hurry up; I vas got no time to vait. Ach 
Himmel! I must make more ladder on your face. 
You seem to like vipped cream served mit your dog. 

(Gusty re-lathers DePyster's face. Jupiter returns 
with a glass of water, places it on the desk with 
the pills, and then goes out into the hall.) 

GUSTY 
(commencing operations with his safety razor) 
How old is dis beard? 

DePYSTER 
I'm twenty so the beard must be twenty too. 



[94] 



THE ICE LENS 



GUSTY 

I tot so ; I vondered if you had so much life in you 
as your beard? 

DePYSTER 
Ouch! 

GUSTY 

Vat's da matter? Is dis razor a little bit too 
much not sharp enough? 

DePYSTER 
It's got a pull. 

GUSTY 

Sure ding — it's a Gillette. Say, you vas had da 
chicken pox once, nicht wahr? 

DePYSTER 
How do you know? 

GUSTY 

It played da deuce on your face — it left two 
spots. 

DePYSTER 

Gut it out, Gusty; I don't feel like laughing. 
Anyhow, your jokes are far-fetched. 

GUSTY 
Far-fetched? I found dat one right here under 
your nose. You vant a massawtch? 

DePYSTER 

No ; they annoy me. 

GUSTY 
Hair cut? 



[951 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

No; the hairs get under my collar and tickle my 
back. 

GUSTY 
Shampoo? 

DePYSTER 

No ; the soap suds might get into my eyes. 

GUSTY 
Dandruff treatment? 

DePYSTER 

No; I detest the smell of it. 

GUSTY 
You need one — your hair has had a falling-out- 
ness. You vill be bald in free years. Ach Gott! 
dann was fur ein Bild. 

DePYSTER 
Stop talking French; I never took it — I spe- 
cialized in German. 

GUSTY 
You collitch boys know about as much German 
as a jackass. 

DePYSTER 
It would be foolish to learn more than my 
position in life demands. 

(Gusty, laughing to himself, enters the bedroom. 
DePyster rises, walks to the desk, swallows the 
pills, and then takes a drink of water.) 
God bless Lydia Pinkham; I'm going to send her 
a testimonial. 



[96] 



THE ICE LENS 



(He returns to the Morris chair. Gusty enters with 
a steaming towel. He wraps it around D<>- 
Pyster's head covering his face completely. 
Then he removes a watch from DePysters 
pocket, and puts it into his own.) 

GUSTY 
(aside) 
Ein Ingersol, aber besser wie nichts. (He re- 
moves the towel.) Is der nudding else I can relieve 
you of? 

DePYSTER 

No; that will be all for to-night, Gusty. Til pay 
you next week. 

GUSTY 
(packing his supplies back into his satchel, and 
pulling on his cap and coat.) 
Dat's all right. I am used to doing vork on 
tick, but I vill keep a vatch on you. Adieu. 
(He ivalks to the door singing: 

"Ich bin der Doctor Eisenbart — 
Zivill-ie-will-ie-ivick-um-BUM." 
After the final "BUM," he turns about, quickly 
puts his hand to his nose, and disappears.) 

DePYSTER 
(remaining in his chair and calling to Adder in the 

bedroom) 
Addy dear, I'm feeling just as bad as ever. 
Would you mind bringing me my black tie and a 
clean collar? And one of my handkerchiefs with a 
pink monogram? 



[97] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

(from within) 
All right, Grandma. Anything else? 

DePYSTER 
My derby. 

ADDER 

What about your corset cover? 

DePYSTER 

(mournfully) 
Please don't make sport of me. I feel as though 
I'm going to die. 

(Adder enters and showers the called-for articles 
of apparel over DePyster. He himself wears a 
black suit and a derby.) 

ADDER 
Just where does it hurt you most, Darling? 

DePYSTER 
I am still sick over it. 

ADDER 

Over what? 

DePYSTER 
The fact that you're going to tell Jefferson about 
our frolic. Perhaps you'll change your mind. 

ADDER 

No; I'll call him in now. (He goes to the door 

and calls.) Hellow Jeff, drop in a moment on your 

way down, (to DePyster) Jeff isn't going to be 

a half-bad fellow when we get through with him. 



[98] 



THE ICE LENS 



DePYSTER 

Yes; there's hope when one stops to consider the 
man you've made of me. 

(We meet Jefferson Lyon for the first time. He 
enters the door timidly. His father's heartless 
description of him is not far from the truth. 
His deformity is pronounced; his face is thin 
and cadaverous, appealing all the more so on 
account of his black suit, tie and derby; his 
hands tremble, and his entire body occasionally 
undergoes a nervous twitch. Our hearts ache 
for him at once.) 

ADDER 

Hellow Jeff, how's the boy? 

JEFFERSON 
(removing his hat, and placing it on the desk) 
I'm feeling pretty fair. How are you? 

ADDER 
Fine; but Ghaunce has had a bad day of it. 
DePYSTER 
(putting on his collar and tie before the mirror over 
the mantelpiece) 
I thought I was going to die this morning, Jeff. 
I've been too ill to stand the strain of a recitation, but 
I'm strong enough to go with you all to-night. 

ADDER 
Ghaunce had one drink too many. 

DePYSTER 
I wasn't drunk, Jeff; I never get drunk. But all 
these fancy drinks make me deathly sick. 



[99] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
We were out on a lark last night, and Ghaunce 
still has a hangover. We both had a hell of a good 
time. Jeff, with a chorus girl and the usual ac- 
cessories that go therewith. The grand climax of 
the evening was a police raid, but we managed to 
skin out. We are going to take you with us the 
next time, Jeff. 

JEFFERSON 
I would rather not go. Adder. 

ADDER 
Why? 

JEFFERSON 

I think it's immoral. 

ADDER 
Rats, Jeff! you'll have to get over that. There 
isn't a fellow in the house who doesn't take a drink- 
now and then, except you. You owe it to us and to 
vourself. Learn to be a good fellow. Forget vour 
grouch. 

DePYSTER 
Yes; be manly. 

JEFFERSON 
I do not wish to be disagreeable at any time, and 
I will gladly retire from the crowd when you start 
your carousals. Rut it isn't the drink so much as 
the girl that I am referring to. 

ADDER 
in what way. Jeff? 



1100] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEFFERSON 
I believe you and my sister — Jeanette — are on 

more than friendly terms these days. I know 
Jeanette is taking you seriously. Do you think 
you are treating her fairly? 

ADDER 
Yes. 

JEFFERSON 
Then she knows about these occurrences? 

ADDER 
No; decidedly not. 

JEFFERSON 
Don't you think she should know? 
DePYSTER 
(removing his black coat from the statue of Psyche) 
How could a gentleman be expected to disclose 
such a thing to a perfectly respectable girl? 
(He puts on his coat and hat, and sits on the arm of 

the chair) 

JEFFERSON 
Aren't you going to tell her, Adder? 

ADDER 
No. 

JEFFERSON 
Would you rather I would tell her? 

ADDER 
(quickly) 
You had better not, Jeff. 

JEFFERSON 
Why not? As her brother it is my duty to do so. 

[101] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
As our brother it is your duty to keep quiet. 
Remember your pledge. You're not going back on 
your word, are you? 

JEFFERSON 
Do you think I shall let my sister step into an 
unhappy future when I can prevent it? 

ADDER 
Unhappy future ! Hell ! don't make it so damned 
serious. It's part of every fellow's college life; 
you're not human like the rest of us. 

JEFFERSON 
I'm sorry, Adder, but I simply cannot see my 
sister misled. 

ADDER 

(revengefully) 

Well, just squeal, and I'll make it hot for you. 

JEFFERSON 
How? 

ADDER 
What about that help you gave me on the exam 
to-day? 

JEFFERSON 
You forced me to do it. I didn't want to, but 
you kept on whispering and pulling my coat and 
jabbing your pencil into my back until you had 
me almost crazy, and I passed back my paper only 
to get relief. 

ADDER 
That's all right; whether I asked you for it or 



[102] 



THE ICE LENS 



not, you did it all the same, and the man who gives 
information is considered in the same light as the 
man who gets it — both are fired from the school. 
Now what are you going to do ? 

JEFFERSON 
What do you mean? 

ADDER 

I mean that if you squeal to Jeanette on me, I'll 
squeal to the faculty on you. It's only a fair game, 
Jeff. 

JEFFERSON 
But you also would be expelled? 

ADDER 

I don't give a damn. It's not going to harm me, 
but it's a hell of a fine reputation for a man who's 
going into the ministry. 

DePYSTER 
(rising, walking to the window, and pulling down 

the shade) 
Lord! I should say so. 

JEFFERSON 
You don't mean you would ruin my future? 

ADDER 
Yes, and I want your answer right quick on this 
matter between Jeanette and me. I want your 
promise that you'll keep it dark. 

JEFFERSON 
You want me to let my sister go on blindly in 
her relation to you ? 



[103] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

Yes, or consider yourself expelled from the 
university. 

JEFFERSON 
My God. man. you wouldn't do that, would you? 

ADDER 
It's easy enough for you to prevent it. 

JEFFERSON 

You think it is easy for me to lie? 

ADDER 
You're not lying — you're simply doing me a good 
turn. 

JEFFERSON 
I cannot, Adder; my God, I cannot. 

ADDER 
Very well, we'll call it settled — I'll hand in the 
report to-morrow. 

JEFFERSON 
No, wait — 

ADDER 

(seizing his hand and placing it on DePyster's Bible) 

Good ! We are going to have your promise. Here 

swear by this Bible that you're not going to tell. 

(He removes his derby.) 

JEFFERSON 
(holding up his hand reluctantly) 

My God, my God, I 

(He falters and falls to the floor in a faint.) 



[104] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

(stooping over him) 
Get the brandy bottle, Ghaunce; he has fainted. 
(DePyster opens a secret panel in the desk. He pro- 
duces a bottle and, a glass, fdls the latter, and 
passes it to Adder, who places it to Jefferson's 
lips forcing him to drink. He comes to.) 

ADDER 
(helping him up and leading him to the couch) 
There, old man ; you're all right again. Lie down 
and rest a while. You needn't go with us to-night 
if you don't feel like it, I'll go down and unlatch 
the front door, and if you need attention just call 
up the doctor on the telephone. 

(The door to Adder's room and the door to Temple- 
ton's room open simultaneously. Adder and 
DePyster pass out closing the door upon Jef- 
ferson who is left alone on the couch. Temple- 
ton enters his own room leaving the door open. 
He removes his overcoat and felt hat, places 
them on his bed, and then sinks into the large 
chair where he is soon lost in meditation. Jef- 
ferson rises from the couch.) 

JEFFERSON 
What kind of men are these I live with? They 
have no respect for God or truth. They even try 
to force lies from me. 

(He places his hand to this throat, and coughs 

lightly.) 
And when I refused, they drugged me. 



[105] 



THE ICE LENS 



(His mind, not any too strong, gives way to hallu- 
cination.) 
Yes; they've drugged me. I know it. I 
know they have, and they have left me here alone 
to die. 
(He staggers to the desk, and seizes the telephone.) 

Greenwood, 3413 Hellow hellow. 

It is you, Jeanette. This is Jefferson Send me 

help ; quick, Jeanette ! .... I have been drugged, poi- 
soned I am here all alone at the dormitory in 

Mr. Adder's room. Send me help. Quick! 
(He drops the telephone, and, supporting himself on 
the desk, he stares blankly into space. Adder 
and DePyster return, closing the door.) 

ADDER 
Well, Jeff, you're feeling ail right again I see. 
JEFFERSON 
(covering his eyes with his hand) 
Somewhat. 

ADDER 
(patting him on the hack) 
You're a good fellow, Jeff; you've sworn loyalty 
to us by the Bible. 

JEFFERSON 
(quickly) 
No; I did not swear by the Bible. 

ADDER 
Oh yes, you did. 

JEFFERSON 
I was going to, but I didn't do it ; I know I didn't. 



[106] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
Sure you did. You just can't remember. You 
fainted while you were doing it, old pal — here's 
DePyster to prove it. 

(He gives DePyster the ivink.) 

Isn't that right, Ghaunce? 

DePYSTER 
Decidedly; most decidedly. 

JEFFERSON 
You mean to say I have sworn by the Bible that 
I will not show my sister her blind mistake? Oh, 
how I hate myself. 

(He covers his face with his hands, and then sud- 
denly removes them.) 

No ; it was not Jeffer- 
son Lyon who swore. You drugged me — you made 
me do it while I was under influence — you know 
you did. 

ADDER 
That was only the brandy we gave you to get 
you out of your faint. 

JEFFERSON 
Brandy! 

ADDER 
Yes ; you've had your first drink now, and you're 
the beginning of a good fellow. 

JEFFERSON 
(terrified) 
Brandy ! Brandy ! 



[107] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

Yes; brandy. II will do you good. 

JEFFERSON 
Good? You don't understand. Adder; you have 
played the meanest of tricks. 

ADDER 
Trick? 

JEFFERSON 
Yes. Oh God. if you had only known it. It's 
hidden in me, Adder; it's born in me— a burning 
desire for drink. I have tried so hard to keep away 
from it (He sobs piti fully.) and that is why I wanted 
to be a missionary so I could work at the side of 
God and forget my wretched thoughts. I believed 
I had succeeded in conquering the evil, but you 
have brought it upon me worse than ever. I 'tell 
you I am ruined— I see them before me now— mock- 
ing friends tempting me to follow them— they have 
won me over— I, who intended to work for God and 
truth, have been reduced to a drunken and a lying 
fool. 

I have sworn to Him above that I shall deceive 
my own sister. (He lowers his head in shame. Ad- 
der shakes hands with DePyster. JefYerson quickly 
looks up.) Don't be too sure of your victory. Adder. 
When one of God's mediums is destroyed, He soon 
finds another one to herald the truth. * (Templeton 
at this instant awakes from his reverie, and places 
his hand over his brow.) Jeanette shall still be 
saved but not by me. I have surrendered myself 

[108] 



THE ICE LENS 



to temptation. I am yours; do with me what you 
will. 

ADDER 

(placing the derby on Jefferson's head ) 
Gome along; it is just two minutes of eight. 

JEFFERSON 
I will go anywhere to take my mind off these 
horrible thoughts; I will do anything to forget my 
misery. 

ADDER 

Then fill up the glasses, Ghaunce, and we will all 

three drink to the health of our good old fraternity. 

(DePyster quickly gets two more glasses from the 

secret panel, and soon has them filled and passed 

around.) 

ADDER 

(holding up his glass) 
We're here to revel, smoke and drink — 
To hell with work that makes us think. 
(Adder and DePyster watch Jefferson closely. He 
hesitates at first, and then, overcome by his de- 
sire, he lifts the glass madly to his lips, and 
drains it of its contents. Then Adder and De- 
Pyster drink. Jefferson hurls the empty glass 
across the room into the fireplace, and bellows 
out a peal of maniacal laughter. Adder and 
DePyster mistake it for the laugh of goodfellow- 
ship, slap him on the back, and, taking him arm 
in arm, they leave the room. 
The town clock strikes eight. On the first stroke, 



riooj 



THE ICE LENS 



all the electric lights, including the wall light 
in Templeton's room, are extinguished. With 
the shade drawn in Adder's room, it is now in 
complete darkness except for a very dull glow 
on the hearth due to the dying fire. Templeton's 
room is but faintly lighted by the street light 
shining through his window. On the last 
stroke of the clock, the footsteps of the depart- 
ing fraternity are heard as they march in strict 
tempo through the hall, down the steps, and up 
the street. The sound gradually dies away in 
the distance. 
There is a short period of absolute silence during 
ivhich Templeton remains seated. Then the 
flicker of a match in the darkness. He lights 
the gaslamp on his desk, and when he turns 
about, he sees Jeanette Lyon standing in his 
doorway. She is bare-headed, and wears a 
magnificent fur automobile coat. Her hairdress 
is extreme, a false addition projecting grotesque- 
ly in the rear and interlaced with a garland of 
dazzling jewels. Her usual attractiveness is 
even surpassed owing to the excitement which 
has flushed her cheeks.) 

JEANETTE 

(nervously) 
Pardon me. Sir, but this is the only room which 
seems to be lighted, so I am coming right in. My 
brother — Jefferson Lyon — has been drugged here 
in this dormitory. 



[110] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 
You must be mistaken; I think you are in the 
wrong house. 

JEANETTE 
No ; he called me on the 'phone, and said he was 
in Mr. Adder's room. 

TEMPLETON 
It sounds queer, but we shall light a candle 
and see. 

(He lights the candle on his chiffonier, and crosses 
the hall, Jeanette following. They enter Adder's 
room. As Templeton walks by the desk, he 
jerks down the pink stocking from the dome 
before she has had chance to observe it. He 
stuffs it into his coat pocket. They walk to 
the bedroom door, and both look in.) 

TEMPLETON 
You see the room is vacant; your brother isn't 
here. 

JEANETTE 
I cannot understand it. 

TEMPLETON 
Very likely it was intended for a joke; this is 
Halloween, you know. 

JEANETTE 

Of course I am glad it is not so, but I really 
can't see why he should play such a trick. I was 
frightened to death. I ran the car up here all my- 
self, and I am so nervous, I am afraid I can't run 
it home. 



[Ill] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

You had better come into my room, and rest 
a little. 

JEANETTE 
Thank you, I will. 
(They return to Templeton's room. He blows out 
the candle, and returns it to the chiffonier. She 
sits down in the large chair beside his desk.) 

JEANETTE 
May I have a drink of water? My throat is 
parched from excitement. 

(He opens the window, and gets a glass and a water 
bottle from the sill.) 
Jefferson is a trifle queer, but he has never done 
anything like this before. 

(He pours out the water, and hands it to her. She 
drinks, and places the glass on the desk.) 
Thank you. Where do you suppose he is now? 

TEMPLETON 
(returning the bottle to the sill) 
This is Thursday evening; they call it frat night, 
I believe. 

JEANETTE 
But why are there no lights in the house? 

TEMPLETON 
It is just a custom; at eight o'clock the switch 
is turned off. 

JEANETTE 
Oh yes, this is the night they hold sacred — they 

[112] 



THE ICE LENS 



all wear black clothes, and march into those myster- 
ious buildings to offer prayer. 

TEMPLETON 
Prayer ! 

JEANETTE 
Yes; they pray until midnight, and then they 
march out again, pure and sweet, with all their 
sins forgiven — that's what Mr. Adder told me. 

TEMPLETON 
You must not believe all you hear. 

JEANETTE 
Then what is it they do in those dumb-looking 
houses? 

TEMPLETON 

These little school boys have their secrets — just 
like you girls. 

JEANETTE 
You can't blame me for being curious. Can you? 

TEMPLETON 
No; you would be a curious girl if you were 
otherwise. 

JEANETTE 
But students do silly things; don't they? 

TEMPLETON 

Yes indeed; almost as silly as girls do — 

JEANETTE 
How rude you are to make the comparison. 

TEMPLETON 

I trust I have not offended you. 



[113] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 

No; not exactly. You see I am not accustomed 
to even the slightest slander. Everybody admires 
me. 

(She feels her hair to see if it is in place.) 

(In this scene we have Templeton in a lighter mood. 
He undertakes to bring Jeanette Lyon to her 
senses. He commences playfully using more 
or less good-natured ridicule, but always re- 
sorting to moderation when his subject appears 
in the least offended.) 

TEMPLETON 
(sitting down at his desk and turning his chair so 
as to face her) 
And you like to be admired, do you? 

JEANETTE 
(sitting up in her chair in great expectation) 
I am perfectly silly about it. 

TEMPLETON 
May I ask you what that means? "perfectly 
silly"? 

JEANETTE 

Oh — don't you know? 

TEMPLETON 
I will look it up in the dictionary to make sure. 
(He takes a book from his desk, and turns over a 

few pages.) 
Perfect — that means "complete.'' 

(He turns over a few more.) 
Silly — that means "brainless." 



flWl 



THE ICE LENS 



(He closes the book, and returns it to the desk.) 
That is: you say you are "completely brainless." 

JEANETTE 
I didn't mean that at all. 

TEMPLETON 
Of course not; but your diction is absurd, isn't 
it? Rather affected? 

JEANETTE 
No ; it is my natural way of speaking. I always 
make it a point to have nothing artificial about me. 

TEMPLETON 
(reaching over and removing a puff from her hair) 
What about this? 

JEANETTE 
I think you are perfectly horrid — but you have 
wonderful eyes to observe it. My hairdresser worked 
on them for two weeks to get the proper shade; 
I thought it was an awfully stunning match. 

TEMPLETON 

(placing the puff on his desk) 
Do you think they are becoming? 

JEANETTE 
Whether they are or not, I must be up to elate. 

TEMPLETON 
Rather than sensible? 

JEANETTE 
Well, how would vou expect a girl to wear her 
hair? 



[115] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

(pointing to the print over the bookcase) 
Are you familiar with the portrait of Mona Lisa? 

JEANETTE 

What a youthful face she has! I wonder what 
secret she had to preserve it. 

TEMPLETON 
Simply this : she never marred her natural beau- 
ty with all the artificial devices with which you 
girls of to-day disfigure yourselves. 
(He picks up the puff.) 

Do you see 
anything like that in her hair? 

JEANETTE 
People would laugh at me if I wore my hair 
like hers. 

TEMPLETON 
Are you quite sure some of them do not laugh at 
it as it is ? 

JEANETTE 
If they do, it is because they don't know the very 
latest style. 

TEMPLETON 
Style is not always taste; a little conservatism 
often saves us from becoming fashion freaks. 

JEANETTE 
(slightly agitated) 
You think I look like a freak; do you? 

TEMPLETON 
I saw a girl walk down the street to-day, and I 



[116] 



THE ICE LENS 



almost called out the department of public safety— 
I thought a wild hyena had escaped from the zoo. 

JEANETTE 
(with greater agitation) 
Then you think I look like a hyena? 

TEMPLETON 
No; you are not so dangerous looking as she. 
You are somewhat human— more on the order of a 
chimpanzee. 

JEANETTE 
(furiously) 
I almost hate you. 

TEMPLETON 
Now come ; let us be reasonable. Just walk over 
to the mirror, and see how much all that protruding 
hair in the rear resembles a monkey's cranium. 

JEANETTE 

(starting toward the mirror and then stopping sud- 
denly) 
I don't care to see it. 

TEMPLETON 
I don't blame you. 

JEANETTE 
(examining the Mona Lisa more carefully) 
If I should wear my hair like that, my face 
would look like a jelly-fish. 

TEMPLETON 
Oh ! Let us not get into such deep water. Your 
face is far better than you think it is. You really 

[117] 



THE ICE LENS 



spoil it. not only with all that false hair but also by 
powdering your nose. 

JEANETTE 
(quickly) 

How do you know my nose is powdered? 

TEMPLETON 
You are trying to hide a freckle. (He holds up 
his finger.) Now aren't you? 

JEANETTE 
Yes; because men don't like to see freckles on 
ladies' noses. 

TEMPLETON 
If you are really worth loving, that insignificant 
little freckle isn't going to keep any man with 
common-sense from doing it. 

JEANETTE 
(from behind the desk) 
If I am really worth loving! Why of course I 
am. 

TEMPLETON 
What makes you think so? 

JEANETTE 

Everybody loves me ; all the young men stand up 
before me and shout their praises. 

TEMPLETON 
And you believe all they say? 

JEANETTE 
Most certainly; you should hear the w T ay they 
say it. It's simply glorious. 



[118] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 
I wonder if it is anything more than flattery. 

JEANETTE 
You mean they are playing me false? 

TEMPLETON 
Perhaps. (His talk takes a serious turn.) Most 
girls are like so many blind fish tossed about help- 
lessly on the sea of life; now this way, now that — ■ 
simply the plaything of a heartless sea-monster. I 
pity them, and then again, I wonder sometimes if 
they themselves are not to blame. So few of them 
have an object in life higher than that of merely 
looking attractive. They thirst after pearls, dia- 
monds, satins, laces, furs, in fact everything which 
serves to detract from the natural beauty which God 
has given them. Where is the woman soul? They 
let it sleep and languish undiscovered w r ithin them. 
Their one desire is wealth for the decoration of their 
bodies. They overlook every other quality in the 
man who possesses it. They are guided only by the 
glitter of his gold. It blinds their eyes to all his 
hidden vices, and they stumble helplessly into his 
arms having attained that honorable distinction — 
his only legitimate concubine. 

JEANETTE 
(with horror) 
Oh! Have you no respect to say such a thing 
before me? 

TEMPLETON 
I have more than respect; I have compassion. 

[119] 



THE ICE LENS 



Perhaps I have spoken too plainly, but I wanted you 
to understand me clearly. Girls blush and faint 
too easily; their ears are too delicate. But the time 
has arrived when they must listen to other than 
sugar-coated words. This modesty is too often 
mistaken for virtue. Virtue means courage—not 
timidity; and until girls know it as such, modern 
marriage will continue to be little more than a trap 
for innocent butterflies. 

JEANETTE 
I am glad now that you have told me; it has 
given me greater confidence than ever in Reginald. 
I only see now what an angel he is compared to 
other men. It would just have been my luck to catch 
one of these sea-serpents had I gone fishing for 
myself, but my dear good Dad has avoided that by 
making the selection for me. 

TEMPLETON 
m It is beautiful that father and child should agree 
—if their common plan guarantees future happi- 
ness. 

JEANETTE 
You seem to doubt my father's judgment. 

TEMPLETON 

It is not impossible that fathers are sometimes 
wrong. 

JEANETTE 
My father! Never. I shall always do exactly 
as he wishes; I shall let him lead me everywhere. 

[120] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 
You should learn to rely a little more on yourself. 
(He picks up the puff of hair again.) 

When I drew this from 
your hair, I never once thought the inside of your 
head was likewise not your own. Gome, sit down; 
let us talk it over. Let us see if you can reason. 
(Jeanette, somewhat reluctantly, takes the large 

chair again.) 
Now suppose your father has chosen wrongly; 
suppose the man selected for your future companion 
doesn't really care for you at heart; suppose he is 
dishonorable — too dishonorable to tell you openly 
that he is morally unclean, and that you would con- 
sequently suffer sorrow and pain. Then your father 
would have to shoulder all the blame, and you 
would have to admit that you yourself had done 
nothing to avoid your own grief as well as his, but 
that you had walked into it willingly, blindly. Why 
not use your own eyes a little? Think how beauti- 
ful it would be if you could show an erring father 
the truth ; if you could change him into a righteous 
man. 

JEANETTE 
You have started me to thinking; that is some- 
thing I have never done before. 

TEMPLETON 
We have made a discovery! 

JEANETTE 
The discovery that I am nothing more than a 

[121] 



THE ICE LENS 



fickle goose without a mi ad of my own — a simpleton 
dancing to any tune which others chance to whistle. 

TEMPLETON 
(consolingly) 
No. 

JEANETTE 
(emphatically) 
Yes I am, and anyone who says I am anything 
better is only flattering me. It's true, it's true, and 
you are the first person who has ever shown me 
what a shallow thing I am. I spoke the truth after- 
all when I told you I was perfectly silly. (She sobs.) 

TEMPLETON 
Oh! You aren't going to cry; are you? 

JEANETTE 
(lowering her head on the arm of the chair) 
Yes ; I shall feel the better for it, 

TEMPLETON 
Good! I shall give you a handkerchief. 
(He reaches into his coat pocket, and unconsciously 
pulls out the pink stocking. Jeanette, of course, 
does not see it, and he lowers it quickly into the 
ivaste basket at the side of his desk. Then he 
walks to the chiffonier, opens a drawer, takes 
out a folded handkerchief , and hands it to her.) 
Here is a nice clean one. Sorry I have no per- 
fume, but the blue border is an "awfully stunning 
match" to your dress. 

JEANETTE 
(lifting her face and taking the handkerchief with 

a smile) 



[122] 



THE ICE LENS 



Thanks; I must have left mine in the car. 

TEMPLETON 
Your tears have washed all the powder off your 
nose, and I believe the freckle has gone with them. 

JEANETTE 

I shouldn't be surprised if it has, because I feel 
as though I have been changed all over. 

TEMPLETON 
That's splendid — have another drink of water. 
(He hands her the glass, and she takes a sip or two.) 
Drink more; wash away all that former frivolity. 
(She empties the glass.) There! I knew all the 
while there was the making of a sensible girl within 
you. 

JEANETTE 
How did you know it? 

TEMPLETON 

Any girl who is brave enough to enter a dark 
building alone is brave enough to defy custom and 
submission by exercising good judgment and inde- 
pendence. 

JEANETTE 

Please tell me your ideal of a girl. 

TEMPLETON 
(sitting down again at his desk) 
I once thought she was lost forever by the way- 
side, but I know she is still among us only we do 
not recognize her stifling under the dust and grim 
which arises from this futile combat for wealth, 
title, and notoriety. That girl shall never die; that 



[123] 



THE ICE LENS 



girl who is herself as God made her; that girl who is 
more than a mere body; that girl who has a living 
and a loving soul; whose personality surpasses her 
beauty; whose culture outshines her fashion; who 
is sensible; self-reliant; wide-awake. 

JEANETTE 

(awakening) 
Who are you? I have been here all this time, 
and have never once thought to ask. 

TEMPLETON 

I am the proctor here — John Templeton by name. 

JEANETTE 
And you stay all alone here in the dark? 

TEMPLETON 

Yes; alone. 

JEANETTE 
How did you happen to get here? 

TEMPLETON 
There is a Higher Power that sends men into the 
dark to help those who are stumbling there. 

JEANETTE 
A Higher Power? 

TEMPLETON 
Yes; I serve that Power by working for Light, 
Truth and Good. 

JEANETTE 
For Light? 

TEMPLETON 
By opening the eyes of the blind and the ignor- 
ant. 



[124] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
For Truth? 

TEMPLETON 
That they may see things as they are. 

JEANETTE 
For Good? 

TEMPLETON 
That they may be restored to honor and integrity. 

JEANETTE 
You must be happy with such a noble task. 

TEMPLETON 
I am ; very happy. 

JEANETTE 
Nothing, I suppose, could make you happier? 

TEMPLETON 
Yes; could I find it. 

JEANETTE 
What is it? 

TEMPLETON 
Cooperation: someone who is not afraid to seek 
and learn the truth; someone who is brave enough 
to fight and conquer evil; someone to share my de- 
votion to God's work for the righteousness and hap- 
piness of His people ; someone who is nearer to them, 
perhaps, than I ; someone to call them back to honor 
and manliness ; and to tear asunder the web they are 
spinning about her. 

(There is a marked silence during which both Jean- 



[125] 



THE ICE LENS 



ette and Templeton are lost in mutual reflection. 
Then she rises suddenly from her chair, and 
holds out her hand.) 

JEANETTE 
Good night, Mr. Templeton. 

TEMPLETON 
(taking her hand firmly) 
Good night; I shall go with you to the door. 

JEANETTE 

Please don't; I wish to go alone. I must go alone. 

TEMPLETON 
But the hallway is dark; I shall prepare the can- 
dle. 

JEANETTE 

It is not necessary. You have already given me 

"The Light." 

(At this instant, one of the glowing logs in the grate 
in Adder's room falls apart, and bursts into flame, 
illuminating the walls with a bright flickering 
light. Jeanette leaves Templeton's room, softly 
closing the door. He ivalks toward the bed, re- 
moves the Ninety-first Psalm there, carries it 
forward to the light, sits in the large chair, and 
reads it in silence. Jeanette passes the door of 
Adder's room. Her eyes are immediately attracted 
by the reflection of the firelight from the silver 
picture frame on his desk. She walks in, lifts 
up the picture, returns it, sinks into the chair, 
sobs aloud, and buries her face in her arms on 



[126] 



THE ICE LENS 



the top of the desk. Then she lifts her head, and 
dries her tears with the handkerchief — the blue- 
bordered one from Templeton; she holds it at 
arm's length, arid then raises it to her lips. Walk- 
ing to the fireplace, she removes the engagement 
ring — Lulu's, by the way — from her finger, and 
drops it among the embers. She gazes dreamily 
into the fire for a second or two, and then leaves 
the room quietly.) 

TEMPLETON 

(reading a part of the psalm aloud) 

"Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder." 



[127] 



ACT THREE 



ACT THREE 



(The fire.) 

The scene is in the "Lyon's Ben" a month or so later; 
it shows the large living-room at Ralph Lyon's 
home. A large archway in the rear opens into a 
conservatory with numerous palms. These palms 
encircle a fountain, which plays over a group of 
statues of nude women; a softened effect is given 
to the setting by means of a rosy light, the source 
of which is hidden under the water. On either 
side of this archway are larger statues of the 
same description, each supporting a cluster of 
electric lights. Above the arch, there is a long 
horizontal painting of the "Fatima" type in Ad- 
der's room. There is a smaller archway above the 
floor level in the left wall; two or three semi- 
circular steps lead up to it, and a pair of heavy 
portieres are drawn across it. On either side of 
this second arch, there are stationary bookcases 
extending half way up the wall; the tops of these 
are ornamented with smaller statues, and another 
art (?) picture hangs over each. In the right 
wall, there is a third arch opening into an en- 
trance-hall from the street. On the side of it 

[131] 



THE ICE LENS 



nearest the conservatory, stands a cellarette; on 
the other side, a small table, the under shelf of 
which holds a sewing basket. Fatima A'o. 4 
hangs over the cellarette, and a large painting of 
Mona Lisa hangs over the table. A large daven- 
port stands parallel to the left wall directly be- 
fore the steps. A circular seat, with an electro- 
lier running up through its center, stands to the 
right, placed symmetrically with respect to the 
entrance-hall arch. There are other pieces of 
appropriate furniture, including a reading chair 
placed in front of the nearest bookcase. The 
floors are covered with oriental rugs. There are 
small, bracket-lights on either side of the right 
and left arches. The general atmosphere of the 
room reflects the depraved tastes of Ralph Lyon 
himself; the paintings and statuary stand out 
boldly against the dark walls and heavy tapes- 
tries. Everything is elaborate but not elegant. 

Mrs. Lyon is seated on the davenport, wrapped up 
i?i a shawl and working over her embroidery. 
Ralph Lyon, in a smoking jacket, stands before 
the cellarette pouring out a glass of brandy. 



[132J 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 
Dear me; I've sewed so much, I've got a stitch in 
my side. 

(She rises, places her fancy work on the davenport, 
and crosses the room to thread her needle with a 
different shade of silk from the basket under the 
table. She glances up at the picture of Mona 
Lisa.) 

I suppose one needs a college education, Ralph, 
before they can admire this new oil painting. I am 
afraid Jeanette will have the same trouble getting me 
to like it that she had cultivating my taste for olives. 

LYON 
(draining the glass) 
It's a perfect freak of a picture, and it's as much 
out of place in this collection as a milkshake in a 
barroom. 

(He returns the bottle and glass to the cellarette, and 
closes the door rather noisily.) 

MRS. LYON 
Jeanette raves about the expression of the face 
and the beautiful simplicity of the dress. 

LYON 

(taking up the book he has left open on the circular 

seat) 
Bosh ! If she had no dress on at all, there might 
be something worth while looking at. 

(He sits down and commences to read.) 

[133] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 
(returning to the davenport) 
Well, Ralph, while I do not take a great fancy to 
Jeanette's taste in paintings, I must say that I can't 
rave over yours. I love rural paintings; if I had my 
way, I would have the walls covered with cows in- 
stead of "bares." 

LYON 

If you had your way, we would all be living fifty 
miles out in the country on a farm, where there 
would be nothing to drink stronger than buttermilk. 

MRS. LYON 
I would be in heaven then, Ralph, and I know 
Jefferson would be in his glory. 

LYON 
Jefferson ! If you would put him on a farm, he 
would be holding services in the barnyard trying to 
convert the pigs and geese. 

MRS. LYON 
Poor Jeff. My heart aches for him; he is always 
being nagged at. 

LYON 

Yes. He is the cause of all the nagging in this 
house ; if it hadn't been for him, the chances are you 
and I w T ould each have found a more congenial 
mate. 

(There is a short silence in which Mrs. Lyon brushes 

aside a tear.) 



[134] 



THE ICE LENS 



Oh! there's no use crying over it; what's done 
can't be undone. But Jefferson himself could do a 
lot more to make us all happier. If he would only 
forget this confounded missionary idea and be hu- 
man like other boys. It will be a happy day for me 
when Jeanette is married to young Adder; I will at 
least have a son-in-law, if not a son, who will sit 
down and take a drink with me in the evenings. 

MRS. LYON 
I believe something cold has come between Jean- 
ette and Reginald. She seems rather queer of late. 

LYON 

That's nothing; all girls get that way after they 
are engaged. 

MRS. LYON 
She has decided not to go to the Prom, and last 
year she was wild about it. 

LYON 

She will change her mind before long. 

MRS. LYON 
Many a girl would jump at the chance. 

LYON 
Just leave it to me — I will get her around to go- 
ing. 

MRS. LYON 
Yes ; you can do anything with her. She always 
was her father's girl. My ways have never suited 
her; they are too old-fashioned. 



[135] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

I suppose she finds you rather unprogressive. 
You and Jefferson make a better pair. 

MRS. LYON 

I do the best I can, Ralph. I was brought up in 
more humble surroundings, and my education was 
none too good. My friends do not appeal to Jeanette. 
She prefers the company of yours on account of 
their wealth and social position. She always has 
been fond of display. Of course I cannot buy the 
pearls, the elegant furs and the valuable clothes 
which you shower upon her. All I can give her is 
a mother's love, and that, I assure you, will never 
grow cold whatever be her own feelings toward me. 

LYON 

Why — she is just in the prime of her life. You 
can't expect her to be cooped up in the house all 
the time with her arm around her mother's neck. 
Anyhow, isn't it enough that you should have Jef- 
ferson? Leave Jeanette's affection for me. 

MRS. LYON 
I would not for the world have it diminished in 
any way; it is all you have, Ralph, since my affec- 
tion for you is not exactly welcome. 
(Jeanette enters from behind the portieres, and de- 
scends the steps to the front bookcase. Her dress 
is simple and neat, and her hair is modestly ar- 
ranged. It is, however, rather from the trend of 
her conversation that we perceive a decided turn 



[136] 



THE ICE LENS 



in character. Her repartee, throughout the fol- 
loiving scenes, is by no means restrained, and 
seems even rude at times. But we must not for- 
get that, in the previous Act, she was openly made 
the target of much irritative — however helpful — 
criticism, and it is only natural that she, who 
heretofore has displayed little if any self-control, 
should attack revengefully those for whom she 
has unknowingly served as puppet. In fact, we 
see her in a transient state; Templeton's message 
has awakened in her a powerful sentiment, but 
her motives are as yet irrational.) 

LYON 

(being the first to observe her) 

We have just been discussing you, Jeanette. 

JEANETTE 
I trust nothing but good things were said, Father. 

MRS. LYON 
It was about the Prom, Jeanette. 

LYON 

Mother said you were thinking about omitting 
it from your calender of festivities. 

JEANETTE 
Yes; I shall. 

LYON 
Why? 

JEANETTE 
Oh, I have outgrown dancing. I have decided 



[137] 



THE ICE LENS 



it is all so very silly — one just goes round and round 
in circles and never gets anywhere. I am going to 
spend my winter evenings reading good literature. 

(She glances over the books on the shelves.) 

We used to have a copy 
of Emerson. 

LYON 

Emerson — Bosh ! 

(He holds up the book he has in his hand.) 

Why don't you read some of those short French 
stories? 

(He points to the further bookcase.) 

There are one hundred volumes at your com- 
mand, each and every one filled with spicy exciting 
tales. 

JEANETTE 
(still searching for her book) 
It had a green binding. Do you happen to know 
where it is, Mother? 

MRS. LYON 
It is not on that shelf, dear; they are all my 
books on farming and cattle-raising. Very likely 
you will find it on the shelf below. 

JEANETTE 

(taking a book and opening it) 
Yes ; here it is. I have opened it to the very thing 
I wanted — an essay on Self Reliance. 

LYON 

(returning to the original conversation) 



[138] 



THE ICE LENS 



But then, Jeanette, aside from the dancing, look 
at the many acquaintances you will miss — wealthy 
young men from all parts of the country. 

JEANETTE 

My coterie is quite extensive as it is, Father, as 
far as wealthy young men are concerned; I know 
enough of these handsome faces and fur-lined coats 
who are spending their fathers' incomes. 

LYON 
You have found them entertaining; haven't you? 

JEANETTE 
(slowly turning over the pages of her book) 
Yes. They know how to be deliciously sociable ; 
they can play both bridge and golf; they can dance 
like fairies; they are very gallant and remarkably 
well versed in the art of flattery and — well, that's 
about all. 

(She sits down in the reading chair.) 
LYON 
You admire such accomplishments; don't you? 

JEANETTE 
Yes; if there is something really worth while to 
go with them — but all garnish and no meat makes 
Jack a deceit. 

LYON 
Well, what more do you want them to have? 

JEANETTE 

Ambition; at least one grain of it. They don't 



[139] 



THE ICE LENS 



even know they have such a thing as a brain. 

LYON 
They are attending college; aren't they? 

JEANETTE 
Yes; I went through that refining process. 

LYON 

And look what it has made of you. 

JEANETTE 
Yes; look. A perfect lady who can ride horse- 
back and say "Parlez vow Frangais?" but who 
hasn't enough common-sense to thread a needle. 
What a fine thing it would be if Miss Martinot 
would abolish her course in aesthetic dancing, and 
teach the girls how to bake a cake. 

LYON 
(tewing her) 
Why you are a splendid little cook, Jeanette; I 
shall never forget that marble cake you baked last 
summer. 

MRS. LYON 
(who hw been enjoying the conversation in silence) 
Don't discourage the poor girl by bringing that 
up again. 

LYON 

Bringing it up ! I never got mine down. 

JEANETTE 
And it is just the same with the young man who 
attends college : he can't apply what he has learned 



[140] 



THE ICE LENS 



to making dough either, and consequently he must 
live on his father's roll. 

LYON 

Men don't go to college to learn how to make 
money; they go to learn how to spend it. The col- 
lege education is intended for gentlemen only. 

JEANETTE 
Yes. In Freshman year they study Geometry, 
and learn the proper length for trousers and the 
correct angle for the hat; in Sophomore year they 
study Chemistry, and learn how to generate hot air; 
in Junior year they study History, and learn the laws 
of chivalry and the art of keeping dates; in Senior 
year they study Botany, and learn how to grow a 
mustache. Educated — Q. E. D. 

MRS. LYON 
What does that mean, Jeanette? That Q. E. D.? 

JEANETTE 
Queasy Effeminate Ducies. That is the type of 
young man Father wants me to meet. Well, I have 
had enough of them, and from now on, I want as- 
sociates who are really of some use in this world — 
people who are doing it some good — people with the 
higher and nohler thought. 

LYON 

You don't mean poets and preachers; do you? 
Good Lord, don't encourage their calling at the house 



[141] 



THE ICE LENS 



— one is enough in the family. Let us have more 
real men like Mr. Adder; he is my ideal. 

JEANETTE 

He was mine also at one time, but fortunately 
I have changed my mind before it was too late. 

(Lyon drops his book, and Mrs. Lyon stops sewing, 
but Jeanette starts to read her Emerson without 
noticing the astonishment caused by her re- 
mark.) 

LYON 

Why, Jeanette, what do you mean? 

JEANETTE 

I mean that I no longer desire his company. 

LYON 
There must be a reason. 

JEANETTE 

(closing her book emphatically) 
There is: Mr. Adder is only the husband you 
have selected for me ; he is not the man of my choice. 

LYON 

(rising) 

What difference does that make? Doesn't he 
come from an aristocratic family? Isn't he wealthy? 
Isn't he a fine fellow in every way? 

JEANETTE 
You may think so, but not I. 



[142] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(angrily) 
It matters little what you think; in fact, you don't 
know how to think, and that is why I had to find a 
husband for you. You will marry Mr. Adder, or not 
marry at all. 

JEANETTE 

(rising quickly) 

That is a question which / shall decide. In one 
thing, at least, a girl should have her own way, and 
that is in choosing the man with whom she must 
live, side by side, for the rest of her lifetime — the 
man on whom all her future happiness depends. 
I cannot sacrifice that happiness just to please you; 
the only way I can please you and make you happy 
is to acquire happiness first for myself. Your choice 
would bring me nothing but grief. Later you will 
justify me for having returned Mr. Adder's engage- 
ment ring. 

LYON 

(stunned) 
What! You have returned his ring? 

JEANETTE 

Yes. 

LYON 

(unable to restrain himself) 
You young idiot! Have you lost your head? 



[143] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
(calmly) 
No ; I have acquired one. 
(Jeanette walks up the steps reading her essay. Her 
parents stare at her in silence and astonishment. 
Then, Mrs. Lyon, smiling in admiration, resumes 
her sewing, while the father, white with rage, 
paces up and down the floor.) 

MRS. LYON 
I wonder what has come over the child. 

LYON 

The devil has gotten into her; she's bewitched. 

MRS. LYON 

There's something at the bottom of it — 

LYON 

And I'll thrash it out. There must be a very 
good reason made clear to me before I let this state 
of affairs continue. We can't let such a fine chap 
escape from the family. I shall have him come to 
the house to-night, and we will learn the whole sit- 
uation. (He reflects for a few moments.) I've got 
it: I'll 'phone to him and ask him over for a few 
rubbers of bridge. 

(He ascends the steps, and leaves the room. Morris 
appears at the entrance-hall arch.) 

MORRIS 
Mrs. Dearborn Hunter. 



[144] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 

(rising, removing her shawl, folding it, and hanging 
it across the back of the davenport) 
I guess it's too early to say I have retired, so I 
shall have to endure her. Let it in, Morris. 

(Morris leaves, and we immediately hear Mrs. Hun- 
ter's tongue before she makes her appearance. 
She enters, and throws her cape on the circular 
seat, displaying a very showy evening gown, cut 
extremely low in the front and even more so in 
the back. Her coiffure is most outlandish, her 
arms and fingers are groaning with jewelry, and 
her face is besmeared with powder and paint.) 

MRS. HUNTER 
Good evening, Dearie. How fortunate to find you 
home ; I invited myself over to spend the whole even- 
ing — I knew you would be delighted. 

(She greets Mrs. Lyon with a kiss, and stands, fac- 
inq the conservatory, so that we cannot fail to 
observe her posterior exposure.) 

It's a very 
cold night; isn't it? My back is almost frozen in 
spite of the fact that I am wearing my heaviest un- 
derwear. You don't mind my taking a little brandy; 
do you? 

MRS. LYON 
(returning to the davenport) 
Not at all. Perhaps you would like a shawl also? 



[145] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. HUNTER 
(opening the cellar ette) 
No; thank you. Dearie. I'll be warmed up di- 
rectly. 

(She pours out a glass of liquor.) 

Won't you join me? 

MRS. LYON 
No, indeed; Ralph does the drinking for the 
whole house. 

MRS. HUNTER 
What a lucky man; how I envy him. 

(She drinks, and then reads the label on the bottle.) 
Hennessy — Three Star. My, but that 
is elegant. 

(She quickly takes a second glass, and then returns 
the bottle to the cellar ette.) 
Mr. Hunter buys me such cheap truck; it tastes 
like dish water, and he limits me to three bottles a 
week — but I manage to have a few extras smuggled 
in. This Hennessy makes me feel like a girl in her 
teens. 

(She lifts up her skirt, displaying a pair of brilliant 
lavender stockings, and, humming a sensual 
waltz, she dances frivolously about the room, 
stopping before the portrait of Mona Lisa.) 
Oh! you've got a new picture — Rembrandt's 

Mona Lisa — the most remarkable Selbsbildniss ever 

painted. 



[1461 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. LYON 
(taking up her fancy work again) 
I must try and remember that — it will please 
Jeanette to hear me say it. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(examining the painting more closely with her lorg- 
nette.) 
I saw the original in Rome last summer. It 
hangs beside Paul Potter's Bull in St. Paul's Cathed- 
ral. 

MRS. LYON 

It it were only a bull's picture instead ! Jeanette 
thinks it is wonderful, but I cannot make myself 
like it. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(walking over to the davenport, and sitting down 
beside Mrs. Lyon) 
How pitiful ! You should really do more to cul- 
tivate your taste in art, Dearie. Have you subscribed 
for the opera? 

MRS. LYON 

No; only for Country Life and Collier's. 

MRS. HUNTER 
I was referring to the opera season, Dearie. Mr. 
DePyster took me the other night. Mary Garden 
appeared in The Countess of Hoffmann: her voice 
was truly remarkable, and her acting was perfect, 
but her coloratura — oh! it didn't fit well at all. To- 



[147] 



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morrow night we are going to hear Thais with 
Slezak in the title role — they say her voice is so 
womanly and tender. I suppose you would be bored 
by it all, Dearie? 

MRS. LYON 

I would far rather hear a cow bawl — there's 
more tune to it. 

MRS. HUNTER 

If I could only persuade you to forget that dairy 
farm. Really, Dearie, you should strive to admire 
the anaesthetic — but you are exactly like Mr. Hunter. 
He prefers the lighter operas like Salome, and the 
more frivolous performers like Bernhardt and Fritzi 
Scheff. I simply can't stand them; Bernhardt is so 
fleshy, and Fritzi — oh! I think it's frightful how 
low she wears her gowns. The truth about Mr. 
Hunter is : he doesn't know what he wants. Pie's 
getting to be such a terrible bore. He's asleep half 
the time; our evenings are so dull, and if I try to 
amuse him with my conversation he takes up his 
hat and coat, and goes to the club. It is really the 
best thing for the poor fellow to do. It is only right 
that we should live as individuals; what's pleasure 
for wife cannot always be pleasure for husband. 
Anyhow, happy marriages are quite out of fashion, 
and if one is out of fashion one might just as well 
be dead. 
(Jeanette walks down the steps, and stands behind 

the davenport unnoticed. She still has her book 



[148] 



THE ICE LENS 



under her arm. Mrs. Lyon continues to sew, and 
Mrs. Hunter continues to talk.) 

I have found a most entertaining companion in 
Mr. Ghauncey Everit DePyster; he's such a jolly 
fellow — so brilliant and so witty. When Mr. Hunter 
goes to the club I just 'phone to Ghauncey. He has 
never once refused an invitation. He is Mr. Adder's 
roommate; you know. I often tell him to bring 
that young gentleman along, but he seems to have 
other interests. 

(She places her head a little nearer to Mrs. Lyon's, 
and lowers the tone of her voice.) 

I really shouldn't repeat it, but Ghauncey 
tells me Adder has a terrible crush on a certain 
chorus girl he calls Lulu. 

(Mrs. Lyon stops sewing. Her face takes on a look 
of surprise, but Jeanette taps her lightly on the 
shoulder, and she resumes her sewing, listening 
more attentively to the remarks of her visitor but 
showing the same outward disinterest as hereto- 
fore.) 

He follows her all around the neighboring towns 
on one-night stands, and each time brings back a 
pair of her stockings to decorate his room at the 
dormitory. 

(She slaps Mrs. Lyon on the thigh, and laughs 

coarsely.) 

It's too bad he must associate with such vulgar 



[149] 



THE ICE LENS 



material, but, after hard study all day long, I sup- 
pose the young men need something to refresh them, 
and for that reason I do all that is in my power for 
Ghauncey. 

(Jeanette steps forward from her place of vantage.) 
Ah! good evening, Miss Jeanette. What makes 
you look so queer, child? Oh ! it's your hair. I don't 
like it at all — so painfully simple. 

MRS. LYON 
But very natural. 

MRS. HUNTER 

And yet so unbecoming. Ghauncey admired 
mine so warmly last night. 

JEANETTE 

Of course. Men are all that way. They admire 
anything extreme ; they would twist their heads off 
their shoulders to gloat after a hobble skirt, and that 
is just the reason so many girls wear them. They 
are just as bad as the men; they will wear anything 
to attract attention. 

MRS. HUNTER 

Don't forget that your own creations this fall 
were the talk of the town; even doty Mr. Hunter — 
to say nothing of the younger set — used to remark 
over the opportunity they gave you to display your 
stunning figure. 

JEANETTE 
Yes, but I have made a resolution to masquerade 



[150] 



THE ICE LENS 



no more. I shall dress modestly and simply, and if 
men are going to admire me, it must be for what 
there is in me, and not for my mere externalities. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(to Mrs. Lyon) 
What a change has come over your daughter, 
Dearie ! 

MRS. LYON 
A change which I very much admire. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Where did you get your ideas, Jeanette? 

JEANETTE 
From yonder picture — Mona Lisa. She is divine- 
ly beautiful: her graceful hands are unmarred by 
rings; her hair could have no gentler an arrange- 
ment, and her dress is simplicity itself. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Then what is it that makes her beautiful? 

JEANETTE 
Her personality — her inner self — her soul. 

MRS. HUNTER 
How can an artist paint what he cannot see? 
Her inner self? 

JEANETTE 
Leonardo did not paint what he saw. He pro- 
duced in form and color the influence which her 
spiritual person had upon him. Each quality, good 
or bad, that dwells within us can be expressed in the 



[151] 



THE ICE LENS 



human face. The character of Mona Lisa is por- 
trayed in her countenance, and there one reads the 
sweetness and the purity of her soul. 

MRS. HUNTER 
But the whole make-up is ridiculously plain. 

JEANETTE 
Only those of us who have hard faces must put 
them in the shadow of an absurd overhanging hair- 
dress, and cover over with paint and cosmetics the 
lines which sin and abuse have stamped upon them. 

MRS. HUNTER 
You had better beware, Dearie, lest Jeanette end 
her days in a convent. 

JEANETTE 
I am not joking, Mrs. Hunter; I am serious. 

MRS. HUNTER 
I should say you are: If you are not careful, 
you will be consumed by your own ideals. 

JEANETTE 
(sitting in the reading chair, and opening her book) 
A condition to which some of us have already 
been reduced. 

(Mrs. Hunter conceals a slight embarrassment under 
a forced laugh. Morris again appears at the 
entrance-hall arch.) 

MORRIS 
Mr. Adder and Mr. DePyster. 

(He leaves, and the two men enter.) 



[152] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. HUNTER 
(rushing to meet DePyster) 
Ah! my dear Mr. DePyster, what a pleasure for 
you to find me here! (She takes his hand, and they 
engage in conversation unnoticed by the others.) 

ADDER 
(offering his hand) 
Good evening, Mrs. Lyon. 

MRS. LYON 

(rising, taking it somewhat coolly, and sitting down 

again) 
Good evening. 

ADDER 
(extending his hand to Jeannette) 
Good evening, Jeanette. 

JEANETTE 
(rising, and returning her book to the shelf) 
Good evening, Mr. Adder. It is a very cold night; 
isn't it? 

ADDER 
(dropping his hand) 
Rather. 
(Jeanette walks away toward the davenport, and, 
standing behind it, she stoops over and places 
her arms lovingly about her mother's neck. 
Neither of them speak, but during their silence, 
in which they seem unconscious of the presence 
and actions of the others, a feeling of tender af- 
fection and mutual concord passes between them. 



[153] 



THE ICE LENS 



Adder removes the same book which Jeanette re- 
turned to the shelf.) 

ADDER 
(turning over the pages) 
Wealth . . Character . . Behavior . . Compen- 
sation. 

(He closes the book, and returns it.) 

Compensation? 
(Ralph Lyon appears at the head of the steps un- 
folding a card table.) 
LYON 
Good evening, everybody. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(leaving DePyster and crossing the room to take 

Lyon's hand) 
Why, good evening, Ralphie. 

LYON 

(patting her boldly on the back with his left hand) 
You're looking finer than ever, Lottie. Just in 
time for our bridge party; you may play Mrs. Lyon's 
hand — she makes such a dry partner anyway. 

MRS. HUNTER 
(reaching up to straighten his necktie) 
Sorry, but I really must go. I hadn't intended 
staying long. There is no one at home ; Mr. Hunter 
has gone to the club. 

LYON 
(taking her arm) 
I shall walk over with you. 



[154] 



THE ICE LENS 



MRS. HUNTER 
(chucking him under the chin) 
Not to-night, Ralphie ; I have already granted the 

permission to Mr. DePyster. 

(Mrs. Hunter turns to look in the direction of De- 
Pyster, who has been standing statuelike on the 
same spot since his entrance. He meets her 
glance with a ceremonious bow. Mrs. Hunter 
exchanges a few confidential words with Lyon, 
while Adder, who has been glancing over the 
names of books on the shelves, crosses over to 
meet DePyster on mention of his name.) 

ADDER 

(aside) 
I brought you along to defend me; didn't I? You 
must stay, Ghaunce. 

DePYSTER 
But, Addy dear, I must be courteous to the ladies ; 
Mrs. Hunter has first claim to me. 

MRS. HUNTER 
Good night, Ralphie. Good night, Mr. Adder. 
Good night, Dearie, (then sarcasticalhj to Jeanette) 
Good night, Sister Beatrice. 

(DePyster throws the cape over Mrs. Hunter's shoul- 
ders, and they glide out through the entrance 
hall.) 

LYON 
Well, there are still enough of us left for an in- 
teresting game. 



[155] 



THE ICE LENS 



(He places the card table.) 
Mrs. Lyon and I will play you and Jeanette, Regi- 
nald — if that is agreeable to all. 

ADDER 
I am well pleased with the arrangement. 

LYON 

And you, Jeanette? 

JEANETTE 
(removing her arms from her mother's neck) 
Absolutely indifferent, Father. 

LYON 
And, of course, Mother is always satisfied with 
everything. 

MRS. LYON 
But in the game we play to-night, she prefers to 
be on her daughter's side. 

LYON 

(shuffling the cards) 
Very well, we shall decide it by cut. 

MRS. LYON 
The cut has already been made. 

LYON 

What do you mean, Mother? 

MRS. LYON 
I see no reason why we should lead up to it 
gradually. What we wish to decide is whether or 
not Mr. Adder is a fit companion for our daughter. 



[156] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(dropping the cards) 
You are too previous. 

ADDER 
I came here with the intention of playing bridge. 
Mr. Lyon 'phoned to me that Jeanette, in particular, 
extended a cordial invitation. If you find yourselves 
indisposed to do so, I shall gladly leave, and pardon 
your error. 

LYON 

I am sorry, Mr. Adder, that this question should 
come up so soon. 

ADDER 

Soon! I infer then that the object of this deal 
after all has been to trap me. 

JEANETTE 
I wish you to understand, Mr. Adder, that this 
bridge party is no affair of mine. I was entirely 
ignorant of your coming. 

MRS. LYON 

No; Jeanette has not planned it, It is simply a 
scheme of Mr. Lyon's to get you here. 

JEANETTE 
I would hardly consider it an open one. I be- 
lieve in informing both my guests and my family 
as to the nature of my entertainment so they may 
come prepared. I assure you, Mr. Adder, that I have 



[157] 



THE ICE LENS 



also been trapped, but I am not afraid to fight for 
my liberty. 

LYON 

Gome, come, don't make it all so important. 
(He taps Adder on the shoulder.) 

What we wish, my good friend, 
is simply an understanding about the relation be- 
tween you and our daughter. 

ADDER 

That is a matter which she alone can explain. 
All I can say is that I love her loyally, and am entire- 
ly unable to fathom her recent feeling toward me. 

JEANETTE 
Pardon my interruption, Sir, but I must contra- 
dict your statement, for you are not loyal, and your 
most ardent declaration will fail to make me think 
otherwise. 

ADDER 
Then what would you have me do to prove my 
sincerity? 

JEANETTE 
Nothing; do not ponder on what you should do, 
but recall what you have done. 

ADDER 

I still plead ignorance. 

JEANETTE 
I will not believe you. I cannot see why my 
insinuations should amuse you this way. I only 



[158] 



THE ICE LENS 



regret that our friendship has lasted this long, and 
that it has been founded on false devotion. 

ADDER 
I do wish you would make things clearer, Jea- 
nette. 

JEANETTE 
I have been your plaything long enough; please 
do not torment me further. If you have any respect 
for me and my parents, you will favor us with an 
open confession. 

LYON 

Jeanette is probably making a lot over nothing. 
What's the matter, Adder? Have you been looking 
at the moon with another girl ? 

JEANETTE 

I am not so narrow-minded as you seem to in- 
fer, Father; my plea is not jealousy. I would not 
have denied Mr. Adder the pleasure of other girls' 
company unless that pleasure became indecent. 

ADDER 

What in the world are you leading up to? Is 
this idle fancy, or have your ears fallen prey to gos- 
sip? But go on; continue the bridge party, and 
make your grand slam. 

JEANETTE 
Admit it yourself; I shall say no more. 

ADDER 
You needn't; I see through it all: your brother — 



[159] 



THE ICE LENS 



Jefferson — has played me false after he swore to 
keep his promise. 

LYON 
Quite likely; he brings more trouble and discon- 
tent than a nest of yellow jackets. 

JEANETTE 

My brother has told me nothing. 

ADDER 
(facing Mrs. Lyon) 
Then he has told your mother. 

MRS. LYON 

My son has said nothing, but I can well under- 
stand my daughter's attitude by what I have heard 
from another source. 

ADDER 
From whom? 

MRS. LYON 
From Mrs. Dearborn Hunter — the village gossip. 
Believe me, if her ears are open, it doesn't take long 
for her mouth to follow suit. 

ADDER 
And where did she hear it? 
MRS. LYON 
From your closest friend — your roommate — Mr. 
DePyster. 

ADDER 
Then both of them had eood reason to leave, but 



[160] 



THE ICE LENS 



they would do well to better their own morals before 
advertising mine. 

LYON 

Well, I haven't heard yet what it's all about. 
What are we wrangling over anyhow? 

ADDER 

Simply this, Mr. Lyon: I took supper once or 
twice with a chorus girl. 

LYON 
(laughing aloud) 
You women paint everything as big as a house. 
Why there is nothing wrong with Mr. Adder's be- 
havior; the month before I was married was the 
gayest time of my life — to say nothing of the frolics, 
unknown to mother, which followed the nuptial 
ceremony. 

MRS. LYON 
Ralph, it is nothing to boast of before Jeanette. 

JEANETTE 
(sinking down on the davenport) 
I am sorry, so sorry, to learn of it. 

ADDER 
Don't judge me, Jeanette, before you know a 
little more about your own father. Not long ago, 
when DePyster called on Mrs. Hunter, he told me 
he interrupted something more than a dinner party 
between her and (He pokes Lyon gently in the ribs) 
this old boy. 



[161] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 

(hiding her face in her arm on the back of the 

davenport) 
Oh! 

LYON 

(tickling Adder in the side) 
Yes; great joke, wasn't it? 

MRS. LYON 

Lest both of you have forgotten, I should like to 
remind you of the fact that you are standing before 
women. 

LYON 
Bosh ! We will never make any headway unless 
we speak plainly; we will have to forget our modes- 
ty for a while, and discuss these affairs to see if they 
are so damned — 

MRS. LYON 

(quickly) 

Ralph ! My ears have often been pained by your 
language on occasions when I could excuse you; 
a man is not responsible for what he says when he 
is under the influence of drink, but I always thought 
my husband was a gentleman — at least when sober. 

LYON 

(hotly) 

Don't dictate to me. I am the boss in this house, 
and I know my business. Jeanette has got to learn 



[162] 



THE ICE LENS 



plainly that men are all alike — they must have their 
little frolics on the side. 

ADDER 
Even Templeton, who is on duty to keep his eye 
on us at the dormitory, is not the angel we thought 
he was. On Halloween, when our fraternity was 
in session, and the whole house in total darkness, 
a girl was observed to slip in from the street, and 
the next morning the janitor found a puff of her 
hair on Templeton's desk and one of her stockings 
in his wastebasket. 

(Jeanette's head slips from her arm, and she col- 
lapses on the davenport, unobserved by the 
others.) 

LYON 

Ha, ha, ha — and that's the goody-goody who 
sleeps with the 91st Psalm over his head! One of 
these people with the higher and nobler thought — 
as Jeanette puts it. (He turns about and faces her.) 
You see, Daughter, you are going to have a hard 
time finding these good, pure people you are preach- 
ing about, Don't you think you had better call off 
the quarrel, and shake hands with Reginald? Give 
him a nice kiss, and make everything right again. 

ADDER 

Yes, Jeanette. 

(Adder puts his arm about her waist. His touch 
has the effect of a restorative: she immediately 

[163] 



THE ICE LENS 



regains her strength and courage, rises, and frees 
herself of his embrace.) 

JEANETTE 
Don't touch me. I can never like you or come 
near you again, and even if I could, I would have no 
place in your heart when you remove my picture 
from the very frame in which I gave it to you, and 
replace it with an obscene portrait of your shame- 
less mistress. 

ADDER 
Has Mrs. Hunter told you that also? 

JEANETTE 
No ; I have seen it with my own eyes. 

ADDER 

When? Not the night of the reception? 

JEANETTE 

(openly) 

No; it was the following night — Halloween. 

ADDER 
(triumphantly) 
Oh! ho! Then it was you — our little Virgin 
Mary — who made the night call on Templeton. 

LYON 

Jeanette ! 

MRS. LYON 

(taking her hand) 
No. 



[164] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 

(scornfully to Jeanette) 

You clever little hypocrite. You charming little 
hussv. 

(then to all) 

I suppose this gilt-edge Lyon family thought they 
were playing a pretty trick when they invited me to 
their bridge party to-night, but they have discovered 
that their guest is not so green as they had expected. 
Now, that he has exposed his hand, the family can 
decide the game among themselves, while the dum- 
my withdraws wishing a merry good evening to 
the whole pack. 

(Adder struts from the room, and a few seconds later 
the door of the entrance-hall closes with a violent 
- slam. Ralph Lyon stands spell-bound, staring at 
Jeanette, who remains speechless but firm.) 

LYON 
(after a short but awful silence) 
Well, Miss Jeanette, have you nothing to say? 

MRS. LYON 
Speak, Jeanette; speak. Your mother will be- 
lieve every word you say. Gome; answer your 
father. 

JEANETTE 

(with emotion) 

My father? My father? You call yourself my 
father; do you? You— you who stand there, and let 



[165] 



THE ICE LENS 



these words pass the lips of such a cad; you — you 
who allow your daughter to be vilely insulted and 
dragged to this level of shame and indecency — you 
— you — and you make not even an attempt to strike 
down the heartless liar — you — you call yourself my 
father. 

LYON 
(unmoved) 
I have listened to your side of the story; I must 
also listen to his. Your behavior of late, Jeanette, 
leads me to believe you are involved in a matter 
which weighs heavily on your mind. Your mother, 
too, has noticed it. Perhaps Mr. Adder has opened 
our eyes, and it remains for you to change the light 
in which I fear I already hold you. 

JEANETTE 
You mean you are not only going to submit to 
hearing him, but you are even going to believe him? 

LYON 
And why shouldn't I? 

JEANETTE 
Because your appetites run wanton, because you 
indulge in shameless pleasures, then you are goipg 
to place me in the same light just because I am your 
child? 

LYON 
Until you vindicate yourself in some way or 
other, I shall consider you a disgrace to the family. 



[166] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
I — a disgrace to the family? I? And what have 
you done, and what are you doing to honor it? Your 
own tongue blabs your disgraceful behavior, and 
only now I see that your face also portrays it. Your 
tastes confirm it. And yet, dissatisfied with the 
atmosphere in which you have already enveloped 
our home by lavishing your father's money on arti- 
cles that reek with lust, you scheme, through me as 
a medium, to bring into our midst a son-in-law 
whose deeds are as (She pauses a second or two, 
and then adds explosively:) filthy as your own. 

LYON 

Silence! Don't repeat to me again the faults 
which every man enjoys. The world knows all that, 
and still treats him with respect. 

JEANETTE 

Yes ; men can be lifted from a public street, where 
they lie exhausted and stupefied from over-indul- 
gence, and the next day, even those who have seen 
them there, are ready to forgive and forget. But 
let a single irresponsible person gossip falsely about 
a girl or a woman, and the whole world stands up 
and bellows her disgrace. 

LYON 

If Adder's report is false, it remains for you to 
prove it so, and I shall give you a fair chance. You 
must answer all my questions with no help or 



[167] 



THE ICE LENS 



sympathy from your mother. I shall ask her to 
leave the room. 

MRS. LYON 

No; I must stay with Jeanette. 

LYON 
(sternly) 
Leave the room. I command you. 

(Mrs. Lyon loses her courage, and leaves the room 
weeping. Lyon begins an examination in which 
Jeanette's entire narrative is heartlessly misin- 
terpreted to accord with the verdict which her 
father has already drawn up in his own depraved 
mind.) 

LYON 

Now, on Hallow r een, mother was out of town, 
and I went over to Hunter's to play bridge, leaving 
you here alone. Why did you leave the house? 

JEANETTE 
I received a message on the 'phone. 

LYON 



From whom? 
From Jefferson. 



JEANETTE 



LYON 

Your brother? Where was he? 

JEANETTE 
At the dormitory — at least I think so. 

[168] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 
What was the message? 

JEANETTE 
He called for help, saying he had been drugged 
in Mr. Adder's room. 

LYON 

Most women are clever liars, but those of your 
invention drop from an inexperienced tongue. Do 
you expect your father to believe that? 

JEANETTE 
I could scarcely believe it myself; it did not even 
sound like Jefferson's voice. 

LYON 

Have you seen him since? 

JEANETTE 
No, and I think it is queer, too, that he hasn't 
been home to mention it. 

LYON 

Not queer at all; the chances are, Jeff knows 
nothing about it. Your story is hard to believe, but 
go on. What did you do ? 

JEANETTE 

The chauffeur wasn't here, so I cranked the en- 
gine myself, and ran the car madly up to the dormi- 
tory. 

LYON 

Yes; you have better control of the wheels that 
are outside of your head. Continue. 



[169] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
The building was in complete darkness, but the 
front door was open, unlocked. I stumbled through 
the dark hall until I came to a door with a light in it. 

LYON 

Who was there? 

JEANETTE 
It was Mr. Templeton's room. I told him about 
the message, and we searched Mr. Adder's room 
together, but found no sign of Jefferson. 

LYON 

Of course not. And what had Templeton to say? 

JEANETTE 
He said it was probably a Halloween joke. 

LYON 

Yes ; he is a little more clever than you are. Are 
you quite sure, my young lady, that the strange 
voice over the 'phone was not — Templeton's? 

JEANETTE 
Absurd. Why would he do such a thing? 

LYON 

He very likely saw you the night before at the 
reception, took a liking to you — just as everybody 
does — and thought this was a splendid chance to 
get more intimately acquainted. 

JEANETTE 
How can you conceive the like? 



[170] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

(in bold conceit) 
I? Ha, I have devised schemes by far more 
clever when I myself had the same hunch in mind. 
Well, then what happened? 

JEANETTE 
We returned to Mr. Templeton's room. 

LYON 

Why didn't you come home immediately? 

JEANETTE 
I was too nervous to run the car. He asked me 
to sit down and rest. 

LYON 

How long did you stay? 

JEANETTE 
I have no idea; our talk grew so interesting. 

LYON 
Interesting, eh? 

JEANETTE 
Yes; he told me plainly what other men have 
never dared to breathe before me. 

LYON 

I can imagine. 

JEANETTE 
At times I thought he was bold to do so, but I 
soon realized that his every word was truth, and 1 
desired to hear more and more. 



[171] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

Yes; such things are always exciting to the in- 
nocent. 

JEANETTE 
I felt a queer emotion coming over me as though 
I were being born into a new life; his revelation 
made me the happiest girl alive. I was so happy, 
I cried — I couldn't help but love him for it. 

LYON 

You love him? 

JEANETTE 
(seriously) 
Yes; from that moment, my heart and soul were 
his. 

(Jeanette's night visit, in the sense her father sees 
, it, appears after all, to a man of his conduct, as 
an act of common — although concealed — occur- 
rence calling for little, if any, serious disapprov- 
al. Up to this point, the interview has furnished 
him considerable amusement, as indicated by his 
sportive manner. But when Jeanette confesses 
in all seriousness a real and profound love for 
the man he despises, then her father's former 
composure gives way to an animal fury.) 

LYON 
This common pauper who hasn't a cent of in- 
heritance to his name, or a drop of respectable blood 
in his veins ! This lunatic who has crossed my path 
once before by inveigling Jefferson into the mission, 

[172] 



THE ICE LENS 



and now shatters my control over you by turning 
your hollow head with his damnable nonsense ! 

JEANETTE 
It matters little to me what you care to call him. 
I shall love him in spite of all you say or think. 

LYON 

I understand now why you have discarded Mr. 
Adder: Not on account of his relation to other 
women, but because he was not more familiar with 
you. You were too ignorant to recognize his great 
respect for you, but when this hypocrite of a preach- 
er lured you into his chamber, and initiated you into 
the very thing from which Adder was trying to 
shield your purity — you thought that was love. 

JEANETTE 

(gasping) 
You misunderstand me; you are misunderstand- 
ing everything. I love this man because he has led 
me from blind existence into real happiness. 

LYON 

Ha, I know this real happiness with false hair 
flying about the room. 

JEANETTE 
He but playfully removed the puff from my hair. 

LYON 

(creeping close to her like a beast upon its prey, as 
if trying to hypnotize her into admitting what 



[173] 



THE ICE LENS 



he believes passed between them) 
That is: He took down your hair? 

JEANETTE 
(gradually becoming hysterical) 
Don't say that; don't, I say. 

LYON 
The stocking was next in order. 
JEANETTE 
(grasping the arm of the davenport) 
How can you? How can you? 

LYON 
And then — 

JEANETTE 
Stop; for God's sake, stop. 

LYON 

(without mercy) 
The irresistible passed between you. 
(Jeanette sways and then falls upon the davenport, 
her body shaking convulsively with her loud 
sobbing.) 

LYON 
(with triumph) 
Ah, you fall before me, and hide your face. By 
this action, you confess your guilt; am I right? 
(There is no answer, only sobs.) 
Answer me. 

(He seizes her roughly by the arm.) 

Are you this man's mistress? Yes or no? 



[174] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 

(rising defiantly before him) 

To such a question I shall never answer. If my 

father's mind is so polluted that he cannot decide 

for himself as to the decency of his own daughter, 

then he may live in doubt forever. 

LYON 

Jeanette, until you are ready to confess to me, I 
do not care to see your lying face; I do not care to 
hear your lying voice. I disown you. 

(He points to the street.) 
There's the door. Go. 
(He ascends the steps, turns the electric-light key at 
the door, and disappears behind the portieres. 
The room is filled with a flood of silver moonlight 
pouring in through the conservatory and the en- 
trance-hall. Jeanette stands motionless until she 
hears her father close his bedroom door angrily. 
Then she walks to the foot of the steps, and faces 
the dark archway.) 

JEANETTE 
I despise you. I loathe you. I do not care to be 
the daughter of so blind and so vile a man, nor shall 
you claim me as such until you open your eyes to 
the truth, and proclaim my innocence with your 
own lips. I shall not live under your roof. I shall 
not come near you. When you are fit to see me, you 
must seek me, and for you I shall wait. I shall wait 



[175] 



THE ICE LENS 



long perhaps, but not in vain. You must come. 
You will come. 

(She takes her mother's shawl from the davenport, 
and throws it over her shoulders. She crosses 
the floor, and pauses for a few moments in the 
doorway of the entrance-hall where, for an in- 
stant, we see the moonlight playing on her beau- 
tiful and innocent face. Then she disappears 
under the cover of night. 

There is a long and restful silence like the calm after 
a storm. Then comes a loud crash of breaking 
glass in the conservatory. A man, half stagger- 
ing and half crawling, feels his way through the 
palms into the living-room. He falls against one 
of the large statues, sending it to the floor in 
pieces. He himself lies there exhausted. 

The noise brings Lyon from his room. He appears 
between the portieres with a revolver. He fires at 
the crouching form in the moonlight. His aim 
proves good, and the victim wails, "They have 
shot me. They have shot me.") 

LYON 

My God! is it you, Jefferson? 

JEFFERSON 
Yes; it's Jefferson. 

LYON 

(helping him over to the davenport) 
And I have shot you? 

[176] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEFFERSON 

No ; you didn't do it, Dad. You didn't do it. They 
did it. 

LYON 

Who? 

JEFFERSON 

The mocking fiends — there they are — see them — 
there — all standing in a row — pointing at me — 
laughing at me — look at their grinning faces. But 
they've got me now — they've got me now — they 
chased me everywhere — when T ran home, they fol- 
lowed me — I thought I was safe, but they shot me 
after I got in — they did it — I know they did — you 
didn't do it, Dad — they did it. (He grasps his father's 
hand.) You're all right, Dad— you're all right — it's 
the fiends that do all the evil. 

LYON 

The boy is mad. 

(Mrs. Lyon enters greatly excited.) 
MRS. LYON 
What is wrong, Ralph? What is wrong ? 

LYON 

Go to Jeanette's room, and tell her to come down 
at once. Telephone for the doctor immediately. 

(She leaves.) 

JEFFERSON 
W r as that mother? 

LYON 

Yes. 



[177] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEFFERSON 

(serenely) 

Mother is an angel, Dad. Dear darling Mother — 
and now they have shot me, and I can't go with her 
on the farm — on dear Mother's farm — the fiends 
couldn't have followed me there; could they, Dad? 

LYON 

How long have you been this way, Jeff? 

JEFFERSON 
They forced me to drink brandy — the fiends— 
that was the beginning — I thought they were drug- 
ging me, and I called for help over the telephone — 
I called for Jeanette. 

LYON 

My God! The girl is innocent! 

JEFFERSON 
That was a long time ago — that was the start, 
Dad, and I couldn't get enough — couldn't get enough 
— it was drink, drink, drink — I was ashamed to 
come home — ashamed — ashamed. 

MRS. LYON 

(entering) 
It is Jefferson I hear. 

LYON 

Yes ; it is Jefferson, and he is dying from drink. 

MRS. LYON 
Dying? 



[178] 



THE ICE LENS 



LYON 

Yes; don't turn on the lights — I cannot bear to 
look him in the face. 

JEFFERSON 
Let me see Mother ; let me hold her hand. 

MRS. LYON 
(on her knees before the davenport) 
Poor Jefferson — my boy. 

JEFFERSON 
Away, you filthy woman. You and your kind 
are the cause of all this. 

LYON 

Oh! God! 

JEFFERSON 
It was for you they tried to make me lie to Jean- 
ette — you are Adder's mistress. Away, vulgar prosti- 
tute! 

MRS. LYON 
Jefferson! Jefferson! 

LYON 

He has lost his mind. (He wrings his hands.) 
Where is Jeanette? Why doesn't she come? 

MRS. LYON 

Her room is dark and vacant. I could find her 
nowhere. 

LYON 

You mean she has left the house? Oh God! 
What have I done? Lost both my children — I have 



[179] 



THE ICE LENS 



driven out my daughter, and have shot my own son. 
(He walks to the conservatory and back.) 

MRS. LYON 
Ralph! You shot him? 

LYON 

I mistook him for a burglar, and I fired. 

MRS. LYON 
Oh, Jefferson, my poor boy! 

LYON 

(standing behind the davenport) 
Slain by his father's hand. 

(He covers his face, and moans.) 

JEFFERSON 

(trying to rise) 

No, no, I tell you you're all right, Dad. They did 

it — the grinning apes — why don't you chase them 

out — they are making fun of me, and laughing at 

my pain (He groans aloud.) — don't let them see me 

die — put them out, Dad — for God's sake, put them 

out — they have always been in the house — they were 

after you, Dad, but they shot me instead — I am dying 

for you, Dad — thank God, I have saved you — I have 

saved you. 

(After a few moments of intense agony, Jefferson 
passes away in his mother's arms. Lyon, as if 
transformed to stone, stands in silence behind 
the davenport gazing off into empty space. A 
dim light steals across his face causing it to 



[180] 



THE ICE LENS 



stand out in contrast with the surrounding dark- 
ness. Nothing is heard except the deep sobs of 
the mother, who rests her head upon the lifeless 
body of her son. After a while, she slowly lifts 
her face toward her husband.) 

MRS. LYON 

He is dead, Ralph, — our little missionary. 

LYON 

(clasping her hand over the body of their dead son) 
Yes, Martha ; dead, but he has performed the mis- 
sion assigned him by God — he has converted his 
father's soul. 

(The light on Ralph Lyon's face grows gradually 
brighter. His countenance, once symbolic of 
evil and defilement, is now radiant with Truth.) 



[181] 



ACT FOUR 



ACT FOUR 

(The lens unmelted.) 

The scene shows a corner and two walls of a room 
in a small cottage up in the mountains. The 
most noticeable feature of the room is an ex- 
traordinarily large window in the right and 
longer wall — so large in fact that we imagine 
the entire ivall has been cut away to give the 
inmates a complete panoramic view of the sur- 
rounding country, which is temporarily hidden 
by the heavy fog preceding the dawn of an early 
Spring morning. The window is open, and the 
low sill is covered with potted plants bearing 
numerous colored blossoms. Below the sill 
there is a long window-seat with bright pillows; 
to the left are shelves filled with books. These 
shelves extend to the corner and beyond to a 
door in the left and shorter wall; a few busts 
and some stone jars filled with wild flowers 
adorn the tops of them. A small table stands 
against the wall on the other side of the door. 
A flickering candle on this table causes shadows 
of the busts on the wall and ceiling. A wicker 
cot stands near to the table but not against the 

[185] 



THE ICE LENS 



wall; it has been drawn out toward the center 
of the floor. There are also two or three large 
wicker chairs. The cover on the cot, the cur- 
tain on the door, and the cushions on the chairs 
and window-seat are all made from the same 
material, neatly and simply stenciled. The rugs 
on the floor harmonize with these both in color 
and design. Framed prints of classical paint- 
ings, including the Mona Lisa, hang on the wall 
above the table. There is another door in the 
right wall; it opens into a garden. The Ninety- 
first Psalm hangs between this door and the 
window. A large desk and a chair stand direct- 
ly before the window. An oil-lamp is burning 
on the desk. The room, seems small and modest- 
ly furnished when compared to the elaborate 
massiveness of the interior scene shown in the 
preceding Act, but the spirit of peace and happi- 
ness hovers over all. 

Templeton is seated at the desk just as we met him 
in the First Act. He wears soft gray trousers and 
a dark blue velvet jacket. Jeanette, in a sim- 
ple white dress and white canvas shoes, lies 
sleeping on the cot. 

After a while, he rises from the desk, walks toward 
the cot, and gazes in true admiration on her 
beautiful face. She wakes suddenly, and he sits 
down beside her taking her hand.) 



[186] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
I just had a very queer dream: it seemed there 
was a knock at the door, and when I answered 
it I found a snake curled up on the door mat. Usual- 
ly I fear them, but this one appeared harmless,, 
trampled, torn, crushed, almost lifeless, and, in spite 
of the repulsion I once felt for it, I pitied the poor 
creature; I refreshed it with cool water; it opened 
its eyes and licked my hand; the poison must have 
been removed because I feared it not. 
(There is a feeble rap on the door. Jeanette rises, 
and Templeton crosses the room to answer it. 
Adder enters, but we do not recognize him ow- 
ing to a pitiful change in his appearance: his 
eyes have lost their fire; his face is pale; his 
cheeks are hollow. He is no longer the picture 
of health that once pleased our eyes, but his de- 
facement appears more reparable than the hard- 
ened features we first saw in Ralph Lyon. Both 
men have been swamped in evil, but Adder, 
fortunately, has been rescued before the stain 
from the mire has permeated his entire being.) 

ADDER 
(after a short silence) 
May one ask for guidance here? 

TEMPLETON 
We are only too glad to help the passer-by. We 
have purposely located our dwelling on an elevation 



[187] 



THE ICE LENS 



so that any wanderer who has lost his way in the 
valley below may quickly find us if he will only 
look upward. 

(He carries a chair forward.) 
Sit down, my friend; you are tired. 

JEANETTE 

And thirsty too. I shall draw some fresh water. 

(She crosses the floor before Adder, and leaves by 

the door through which he entered. He follows 

her with his eyes, and after she disappears he 

sinks into the chair with a painful sigh,) 

ADDER 

Yes; I am both tired and thirsty — tired of the 
worthless life I have been leading, thirsty for a 
new one, thirsty for all that is right and good, thirsty 
for — 

(Jeanette returns with a stone cup filled with water. 
She offers it to him. He drinks, and returns the 
vessel.) 

Thank you; thank you very much. This 
is the first real kindness that has been shown me in 
a long while ; it is the act, more than the cool water, 
which refreshes my burning soul. Would that I 
could express my gratitude by kissing your kindly 
hand. 

(Jeanette non-reluctantly extends her hand. Adder 
reaches for it, but draws back immediately.) 
No, no. To a woman of her purity, my touch 



[188] 



THE ICE LENS 



would be as repulsive as the sting of a serpent. I 
cannot. I cannot. 

(He covers his face with his hands. Templeton sig- 
nals to Jeanette to leave the room. She carries 
the cup to the table, takes up the candle, and 
disappears behind the curtain on the door. Tem- 
pleton takes his position behind Adder's chair, 
and pats him amicably on the shoulder.) 

TEMPLETON 
Gome, come; brace up. I realize your position. 

ADDER 
Then you recognize me? 

TEMPLETON 
As one in many who have gone astray. 

ADDER 

But do you not recall that I was once your neigh- 
bor? 

TEMPLETON 
We are all neighbors. We are the people of a 
vast neighborhood working toward ultimate good. 
Even our sinners contribute toward this end in that 
we all profit by their reckless mistakes. Indeed, our 
common progress is retarded not by the existing 
wrongs we are trying to rectify, but by the ingrati- 
tude, the ridicule, the opposition and the slander 
which are constantly being thrown across the path 
our benefactors are clearing. 



[189] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
I regret deeply all I have said about you. I know 
you must hate me for it. 

TEMPLETON 
Why should I hate you? What good would that 
do? What you said was false, and it is only the 
truth that hurts. You have not harmed me, my 
dear friend; you have injured only yourself, and 
what you need is my sympathy and not my con- 
tempt. 

ADDER 
How kind and considerate you are. 

TEMPLETON 
It is but the pleasure as well as the duty of a 
Christian to be so. It is only by helping others 
that we advance ourselves; scorning them simply 
leads to our own misery. 

ADDER 

There is no better example than myself to illus- 
trate the truth of your statement. I recall a class- 
mate of mine — a poor ragged devil, who spent all 
four years of his college life facing and overcoming 
obstacles; he fired furnaces to pay the rent for his 
cold attic room; he waited on tables to earn his 
food; he kept books for a tailor to get what few 
cast-ofY clothes he wore. Little time had he to him- 
self, but in that time he fought and toiled. He had 
no friends, no pleasure, not even health; he had 
nothing — nothing but ambition. I used to laugh at 



[190] 



THE ICE LENS 



this man — laugh at his shabby appearance. I avoid- 
ed his company, and refused to recognize him on the 
street. What little I said of him behind his back was 
unkind and false. But now he, who seemed cursed 
both by fate and by myself, he has made good, while 
I, who had everything — health, time, money, ability, 
— have squandered all and am reduced to a miser- 
able, worthless, self-made good-for-nothing. 

TEMPLETON 
The road to ruin is wide and smooth, but the 
narrow path to success is full of obstacles. Your 
classmate has met them one and all; they retarded 
but did not prevent his progress. Our strength 
comes mainly through our suffering, and his exper- 
ience in overcoming one obstacle armed him with 
a new and stronger determination to conquer the 
others — including the contempt which you yourself 
exercised over him. 

ADDER 

If I had only helped him, then I could look back 
to at least one good unselfish deed. But no ; I cared 
only for my own happiness and gave no thought to 
the wretched condition of others. I was worse than 
a selfish fool! I was a greedy glutton taking more 
than my fill of beastly pleasures, and, added to all, 
I was an infernal liar. I tried to win deceptively 
the love of an innocent girl, and, when she justly 
cast me off, I insulted her with accusations as false 
as they were vile. 



[191] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

You refer to — 

ADDER 

Please don't breathe her name. I deny my ears 
the pleasure of hearing it; I forbid my lips the honor 
to speak it. But I am repaid; God knows I am well 
repaid for it all. My own roommate reports my dis- 
honesty to the faculty, and heralds to the public 
my relations with a harlot. My university expels 
me ; my body suffers incessant torture from the fear- 
ful pain of unsightly diseases ; my friends no longer 
know me; and worst of all — my own mother, who 
has never drawn me to her heart, disowns me. God 
help me to forget the man she calls her husband; I 
curse every dollar he has thrust into my reckless 
hand; I no longer care to own his name. I long 
to start anew, for, although I have rendered myself 
unfit for a husband and a father, I can still be a 
man — a man earning a deserved existence by his 
own honest labor. But how — how shall I do it? 
Look at me ; my God ! look at me ! 

TEMPLETON 
However black the sky may seem, in time the sun 
will shine ; however wicked our souls appear, if we 
will but wash away the scum, we shall find good 
hidden beneath it. (The faint outlines of distant 
mountain peaks appear in the fog.) 

ADDER 
Is there in me a single virtue? 



[192] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

There is at least one seed of it in every man, and 
that seed is indestructible: place him where you 
will, — in the midst of the blackest and deadliest evil, 
— that seed never loses its latent power. It may 
seem lost forever, but patience and hope will find 
it, and, although trampled and crushed, it will 
sprout and blossom if we warm it and nourish it 
with sunshine and love. 

ADDER 

And where must that seed be planted? 

TEMPLETON 
In fresh sweet soil. 

(He points out the open window.) 

Yonder on the hillside, the la- 
borers have commenced excavations for the New 
Church of God. Take up your pick and shovel, and 
help with its foundation. 

ADDER 
Must I begin so low? 

TExMPLETON 
We should all begin at the bottom, and then rise. 
Some of us rise rapidly; others slowly; and some are 
content to remain there. But even their service is 
essential, for the whole edifice rests on the founda- 
tion which is the product of their labor, and God re- 
wards them with the same salvation he grants to 
the velvet-robed minister who has climbed to the 
top of the pulpit. 



[198] 



THE ICE LENS 



ADDER 
What chance have I to rise? Fingers will point; 
eyes will glare; everybody will crush me with their 
hatred and their sinister thoughts. 

TEMPLETON 
You misjudge the world. Prove to them first that 
you are worthy of remission. Work hard and move 
onward. Each advancing step toward the truth, 
however small, will stand out all the more brilliant- 
ly in contrast to the dark background which you 
have set up behind you. Your new life gradually 
begins to glow, then to shine, then to sparkle, and 
finally becomes so dazzling that the background is 
no longer visible — it dissolves — it fades. (The fog 
is gradually dealing; the mountains become more 
and more distinct.) 

, ADDER 

(rising) 

I thank you for every word you have told me. 
They have been words of truth and encouragement. 
I shall follow your counsel, and to-morrow — no, to- 
day — I shall start in the ditch, and dig, and dig, and 
dig. 

TExMPLETON 
(placing his hands on Adder's shoulders, and look- 
ing deeply into his eyes) 
You are setting a noble example for the world: 
you are starting across that bridge which leads from 



[194] 



THE ICE LENS 



mere existence to service, from degeneration to man- 
hood. Your hatred for vice will be all the more bit- 
ter because you yourself were once a victim, and 
have now reformed. The world needs men like you, 
and God knows there are enough eligible candidates. 
Let it be your mission and my mission to save them. 
From this moment let us be brothers working for 
the same cause. Let us clasp hands in eternal friend- 
ship and everlasting fraternity. 

ADDER 
(clasping Templeton's hand) 
Fraternity! Never, until now, have I known the 
true meaning of the word. 

(Jeanette enters through the curtained door.) 

TEMPLETON 
And here stands another loving soul to help us. 

JEANETTE 
(holding out her hand to Adder) 
And to wish you infinite success. 

ADDER 
Thank you. Thank you. I should love to touch 
your hand, sweet lady, but God forbids it. 
(Adder starts to walk toward the door, but Temple- 
ton arrests him by placing his hand on his 
shoulder.) 

TEMPLETON 
Wait. God has already cleansed you. Fear not 
to take the guiding hand He offers you. 



[195] 



THE ICE LENS 



(Adder turns about, walks toward Jeanette, falls on 
one knee, and, seizing her extended hand, he cov- 
ers it with kisses. Then he rises, takes his hat, 
covers his face with his arm, and, sobbing aloud 
like a child, he feels his ivay slowly out of the 
room. Templeton and Jeanette stand motionless 
until the sobbing dies away in the distance. A 
delicate pink glow appears in the sky.) 

TEMPLETON 
He cries because he is happy. He has entered 
the childhood of a new life, and childhood is the 
happiest period of all — it is the beginning — the time 
when there is no past — the time when the future 
looks brightest — the time when our thoughts are 
clean and pure. 

(He extinguishes the lamp, and watches the chang- 
ing color of the heavens.) 

JEANETTE 
He has found the truth. To him, it will be as 
beautiful as the flowers which the children have 
culled in the meadows. 

(Two children rush in through the open door, one, 
a girl; the other, a very small boy — a mere 
baby in "rompers." They are neatly dressed in 
clean bright clothes, and carry large bunches of 
daisies in their arms. Templeton and Jeanette 
join them in singing and dancing around the 
flowers which they have scattered on the floor 
in the center of the room.) 



[196] 



THE ICE LENS 



GIRL 
(to Jeanette) 
We came to turn you into a fairy. 

JEANETTE 
How jolly! and what would you have me do? 

GIRL 

Sit right here on the floor, and take down your 
hair. 

(Jeanette obeys letting her hair fall gracefully over 

her shoulders.) 
Now, Brother, you must sit down also. 
TEMPLETON 
(squatting on the floor and taking the baby boy on 

his knee) 
Brother and I will be two little brownies sitting 
on a log and peeping and smiling. 

GIRL 
You're too big for a brownie — let Brother be 
the brownie, and you be the log. 

TEMPLETON 
Good idea! That is much better. 
(Templeton lies down on his back, and the girl 
places the little boy astride his stomach.) 

GIRL 
There; that's fine. You make such a good log, 
and you're so willing about it too, 

TEMPLETON 
Does your father ever play log for you? 



[197] 



THE ICE LENS 



GIRL 
(standing behind Jeanette and arranging her hair) 
Yes; he does almost everything for us now. 
Mother is so glad he is happy again. He used to be 
so cranky because he had no money. Sometimes 
I thought he was going to eat both Brother and me 
with one bite — but that wouldn't have made him 
feel any better; would it? Brother alone, without 
me, would have felt heavy on his tummy. 

TEMPLETON 
(who is in a position to judge) 
I should say so. 

GIRL 
But one night he came home all in smiles. He 
told Mother that money wasn't everything, and that 
we were going to be just as happy without it; and 
he came over to my bed, and woke me up, and tickled 
me, and said, "Laugh, Mary; laugh!" and, sleepy as 
I was, I laughed so loud that I woke Brother up, and 
Father took us both in his arms, and kissed us all 
over. And then he went into Mother's room, and I 
heard him say: "Thank God; we've got a home 
that rings with children's laughter." 
(Metcalf rushes into the room, happy and smiling. 
He wears a very respectable-looking suit and a 
new straw hat with a rather brilliant band.) 

METCALF 
Good morning, everybody. 



[198] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

(rising to a sitting posture, and talcing Brother on 

his lap) 
Good morning; you are just in time to see the 
fairy appear. Gome sit down, and join us. 

GIRL 
Yes; there ought to be a grasshopper looking on 
too, or you might be a bullfrog, or even a nice big 
fat caterpillar. 

JEANETTE 
(who has just finished making a ivreath from the 

daisies) 
Why didn't you bring Mrs. Metcalf along? She 
might have served as a butterfly. 

METGALF 

(taking his seat on the floor among the others) 
I left her at home taking a much needed rest — 
we have a maid now you know. 

GIRL 

(placing the wreath on Jeanette's head, and fasten- 
ing it to her hair with other daisies) 
And Mother gets time to tell us such nice stories. 

METGALF 

Yes, and time to read them too; we take The 
Ladies' Home Journal now — a dollar and a half per 
year. After dinner these days, Kate takes that in- 
stead of the dishcloth. 



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JEANETTE 
We were so glad to hear your salary was in- 
creased. 

METCALF 
And it's a happy family we are; isn't it, Brother? 
(He relieves Templeton by taking the boy in his own 

arms.) 
We all have new souls — I bought four pairs of 
shoes lask week. 

GIRL 

You ought to see mine. They are too cute for 
words — white ones with little blue bows. And look 
at Brother's — he was allowed to wear his because 
Father carried him most of the way. 

JEANETTE 
Gome over to me, Brother, and let me see them. 
(The boy tottles across the floor, and Jeanette catches 
him in her arms.) 

GIRL 
But our shoes aren't in it with Mother's Easter 
bonnet. 

METCALF 
Her first hat in five years. Kate always had to 
trim her own hats — last Easter she used chicken 
feathers. (Laughter.) It may sound queer but it 
looked almost as swell as these Parisian roof-gardens 
with their imported cocktails. Kate has some head 
— she has a certain knack of making something out 

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THE ICE LENS 



of almost nothing. Would you believe that Mary's 
dress, there, was made out of our front-room cur- 
tain, and Brother's belt is an old tie of mine. Kate 
is a real mother — she does everything she can for 
my boy and girl, and that's why I sacrificed a great 
part of last month's pay to get her that new bonnet 
with the blue plumes and forget-me-nots. 

TEMPLETON 
Have you something to harmonize with it? 

METGALF 

(holding up his straw hat with the bright blue band) 

Yes. 

TEMPLETON 

You must look charming when you go out walk- 
ing together. 

METGALF 

Yes ; we hope to be taken into society by next fall. 
Kate has already had an invitation to a church 
social — she's going to furnish the doughnuts. I 
suppose I shall have to learn all over again how to 
act in company. I've grown pretty rusty in that 
line — when we went to the theatre the other night, 
I was so fussed that when the usher asked me for 
the seat checks I reached into my pocket and hand- 
ed him Kate's false teeth. (Laughter) You see she 
is not altogether used to her new set, and I carry 
the old ones along in case she has to do any eating — 
we each had a sandwich and a glass of lemonade 
after the performance. Living high these days ! 



[201] 



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TEMPLETON 
I am glad to find you looking at the brighter side 
of life. 

METCALF 
Since I have paid back all that money I borrowed 
for my education, I am feeling happy as a lark. 

JEANETTE 

And you look like one too in all your new 
plumage. 

METCALF 
It is remarkable what clothes will do — just out- 
side the door I met one of my students, and he actu- 
ally recognized me. 

TEMPLETON 
There comes a time in every man's life when he 
realizes the truth in the principle of equality. The 
student you have mentioned has paid for his folly. 

METCALF 
If I had owned these clothes sooner, I believe I 
could have done that fellow more good — I might 
have helped in part toward avoiding his ruin. 

JEANETTE 
In what way, Mr. Metcalf? 

METCALF 

The more respectable a teacher appears, the more 
he impresses a student with his knowledge. How 
can we expect these fashionable youths to be in- 



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spired by a sour-faced pedagogue in a worm-eaten 
suit and a soup-stained necktie even though he 
knows forward and backward the cause of every 
natural phenomenon? These boys get the idea that 
serious study must invariably result in deterioration, 
and that deep thinking is but the mania of a freak. 
There are some over-paid geniuses whose hair goes 
to seed and whose trousers bag at the knee on ac- 
count of their inexcusable recklessness, but there 
are many other more evenly balanced teachers, 
with pride as well as sense, whose features have 
become haggard and whose clothes have grown 
shiny from ill-paid labor and unavoidable parsi- 
mony. Over half the money donated to educational 
institutions is misused; stately recitation halls and 
stately laboratories will never serve in turning the 
head of youth from folly to study unless we place 
(He rises, and strikes a stately pose,) stately teachers 
within them. 

JEANETTE 
Bravo. 

METGALF 

I believe the modern notion of a university is 
radically wrong, and I think my opinion is con- 
firmed by the poor results we obtain. The whole 
system should undergo a revolution: less fuss over 
the hobbies of genius, and more attention to the 
enlightenment of the masses. Research in unknown 



[203] 



THE ICE LENS 



fields of learning may demand the sacrifice of teach- 
ing ability on the part of the investigator, but it 
should not usurp the positions and the salaries 
which are connected with the more rudimentary 
instruction of our children. Bring out the teachers 
— the real teachers ; encourage more and better men 
in the teaching profession ; pay them enough so they 
can live respectably and win the admiration of their 
students. Then our sons will get an education in- 
stead of a degree, and our universities will turn out 
learned and moral men instead of tinkling cymbals 
and profligates. 

JEANETTE 

When will your ideas go into effect? 

METGALF 
When Brother here is ready for college. 

JEANETTE 
And where will you send him? 

METGALF 
To that university which is going to take the first 
step in the right direction. Stand up, Brother, and 
tell us what you're going to be when you grow up. 

BROTHER 

(standing upright like the little sprout which de- 
velops into a mighty oak) 
A man. 

METGALF 
What kind of a man? 



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THE ICE LENS 



A good man. 
What else? 
A smart man. 
Is that all ? 



BROTHER 
METGALF 
BROTHER 
METGALF 



BROTHER 
A YALE man, Daddy. 

(Metcalf lifts his little son up on his shoulder, and 
takes the girl by the hand.) 

METGALF 
Gome along, Kiddies; we must go home to 
Mother, (to Jeanette) This wasn't intended for a 
formal call. We were out for a morning climb to 
see the sunrise, and just dropped in. The next time, 
I shall bring Kate along with her new bonnet. 

(The three of them skip out the door singing their 
"Good byes." Templeton rises and walks to 
the window where he waves his handkerchief . 
Jeanette remains seated on the floor among the 
field flowers.) 

JEANETTE 
What a happy family they are. 

TEMPLETON 
It does my heart good to see them. To work for 
the happiness of others — that is my mission. 

[205] 



THE ICE LENS 



JEANETTE 
You have accomplished it, John; why can't you 
rest and be satisfied? 

TEMPLETON 
When a man is satisfied with what he has done, 
and cares to do no more, he has reached his cul- 
minating point, and is of no more service to the 
world in which he lives. 

JEANETTE 
Yes, John, but surely you have earned your lau- 
rel by this time. 

TEMPLETON 
The laurel wreath that comes with trivial labor 
soon withers and dies, but the one which is the 
reward for perpetual service to God remains forever 
green. 

(He gazes in the direction of the distant mountain 

peaks.) 

JEANETTE 
But your health and your life? 

TEMPLETON 
I shall leave that to Him, Jeanette. 
(He comes forward with a chair, and sits before her 
so that he himself faces the open window.) 

I lost my parents 
before I knew what a father or a mother meant. 
There was only God to watch over me, and why 

[206] 



THE ICE LENS 



should he not continue to do so. He has always been 
my only friend. My principles have not conformed 
with those of the world, and consequently it turned 
its back upon me. But the fact that I was not loved 
only strengthened my desire to love, and the fact 
that I found the world cold instilled in me a deep 
longing to warm it. God favored me with both 
the opportunity and the reward: I was placed 
among men who were sorely in need of guidance, 
and, while helping God to reform them, He sent 
you to assist me — you were the sunshine that bright- 
ened my secluded life. 

(She rises from the nest of flowers, and, remaining 
on her knees, places her arms about his neck.) 

JEANETTE 
I am so glad, John; so glad. 

TEMPLETON 
(holding her head in his hands) 
You, Jeanette, are that little fairy who turns my 
work into play, and changes my very fatigue into 
animation. You have brought light to me; I have 
brought light to you; both of us must continue to 
bring it to others. We have reached the mountain 
top, but we must climb still higher that we may see 
farther, and find those who are lost in the dark val- 
ley below us. You ask me to rsst, but I cannot; I 
must climb — climb and take you with me. I am 
not content to see your head wreathed in daisies; 



[207] 



THE ICE LENS 



they were culled in the lowlands — they will soon 
wilt and fade. But high up on the Alpine summits 
grows the edelweiss, which is reached only with the 
expenditure of great effort and even at the risk of 
life, but, once obtained, it remains fresh and whole- 
some eternally. Look, Jeanette! See the towering 
peaks around us — The Thrones of God. 
(He points out the open window. She turns her 

head, and gazes wistfully across the valley.) 

On them 
the air is still purer; the sunshine, even brighter; 
the edelweiss, more genuine. There must we climb, 
higher and higher, to gather the blossoms for your 
crown. And after we reach the highest summit, 
we shall climb still higher — Heaven is the ultimate 
goal. And there we shall gather the stars. The 
stars, Jeanette, shall finally encircle your brow. 

JEANETTE 

It is wonderful, John; all so wonderful. And I 
am so happy that God has sent me as a companion 
to re-animate you for the lofty task in which you 
serve Him. 

TEMPLETON 

(drawing her tenderly to his bosom) 
I am so grateful that you are able to understand 
me, Jeanette. 

JEANETTE 
It would be selfish to think you belonged to me 
alone, to think that all your love must be mine. 



[208] 



THE ICE LENS 



You appear more noble to me when you share it with 
others. But I, John, I can love no one but you; 
all the sunshine my heart and soul can bring is for 
you alone. 

TEMPLETON 

But humanity needs your love also, Jeanette. 
There are times when mine cannot replace it. Even 
now I can hear a soul crying out to you for help; 
I can see outstretched arms pleading for your mercy. 

JEANETTE 
(gradually leaving his arms, and sinking to the floor) 
My father. My cruel heartless father. I can 
never return to him. Never. I vowed that he must 
come to me. 

TEMPLETON 
And when you made that vow, you were out of 
reason just as much as your father was when he 
disowned you. 

JEANETTE 
No, John; what I felt was right and truth— what 
he felt was false. 

TEMPLETON 

It is for that very reason that you should over- 
look it. Your father was not himself; he was the 
victim of evil. He is not entirely to blame. 

JEANETTE 
How can you take his part when he accused us 
so fearfully? Oh! why have you recalled it? I 



[209] 



THE ICE LENS 



see him now attacking me with every tooth and 
nail. I shall never be able to forget it. I can never 
do anything but hate him, hate him, hate him. 

TEMPLETON 
You should hate evil, Jeanette, and hate it in- 
tensely, but do not hate the unfortunate ones who 
lie strangling under its grip. Rather than condemn 
man, let us better the conditions under which he 
lives. In the first place: Who were your father's 
parents? Wealthy people so thirsty for social 
prestige that they could give their own child no at- 
tention. He never had a true mother's love ; he nev- 
er had a righteous father's counsel. In fact, he 
was sent away among strangers with nothing but a 
heavy purse. He went to school, to college. There 
he acquired both habits and friends — Alas ! we call 
them friends — these "good fellows" who not only 
boast of their own low deeds, but lead us arm in 
arm to ill fame and ruin. 

(Jeanette begins to show more and more interest.) 

His university — the Alma 
Mater under whose responsibility his uprightness 
was shifted — she likewise was too thirsty for showy 
reputation to take interest in her own son. In her 
frenzied efforts to expand and to claim the glory of 
new discoveries and achievements, she ignored his 
moral education and conferred upon him a degree 
for the examinations which he passed with his tu- 
tor's brains. His ignorant parents applauded his 



[210] 



THE ICE LENS 



victory, and rewarded him with a fortune to last 
the rest of his days. With a future provided for, 
he never knew the sweetness of labor, but continued 
the fatal pleasures of his youth. Without a con- 
science to guide him, and without a single hand to 
help him, he sank into the quagmire of evil — lower, 
lower, lower. 

(With these words, she gradually lowers her head on 
his knee and begins to sob.) 

Now, Jeanette, 
you understand why I said he was not entirely to 
blame. Of course he has sinned, but you and I both 
know that he has been punished and suffers. But 
remember, his sins are indirectly the cause of your 
happiness, which seems all the brighter in contrast 
with his sorrow. Is it not only human, Jeanette, 
that those who are benefited by the mistakes of 
others should, if not share, at least do all they can 
to relieve the pang of the transgressor rather than 
increase it by spurning him? Your father now 
realizes his error, and he is working hard to reach 
you and admit it. This very moment he is climb- 
ing the mountain side — the mountain of truth and 
light. Are you going to help or hinder him? 

JEANETTE 
(rising, and drying her tears) 
I shall go and help him, John; help him all I can. 
I should have done it long ago. Poor unfortunate 
father ! 



[211] 



THE ICE LENS 



TEMPLETON 

(rising, and taking her in his arms) 
It is the glorious spirit of God within you. 

(The strains of Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" set 
the air in rapturous vibration; the flowers on 
the window-sill nod happily as a fragrant breeze 
blows over them. 

Jeanette flutters out through the open door like a 
bird. 

Templeton returns to his desk, and writes. 

The distant mountain peaks seem nearer than be- 
fore. The first quivering ray of the rising sun 
escapes from behind the eastern range, and falls 
upon the neighboring summits. They sparkle 
like diadems suspended in the heavens, reflect- 
ing a flood of golden light symbolic of the exul- 
tation of God.) 



[212] 



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